Sundried Tomato and Sausage Mac and Cheese
I think that sundried tomatoes are a great match for cheesy pasta. For some reason, this idea popped into my head a few weeks back and it was the perfect thing to cook for some of nicks friends when I was staying in his apartment last week. This is the best time of the year to use sundried tomatoes, when tomatoes at the store are pretty gross tasting and nothing is fresh and local. Sundried tomatoes pack such an awesome deep tomato flavor.
All the chopped sundried tomatoes and oregano. The tomatoes go into 3 cups of milk on the stove. Bring it to an almost simmer, then remove from heat and let it sit for 20 minutes.
These are a few of my favorite cheeses.
The roux.
This is after the milk and tomatoes are added. The cheese goes next.
Italian sausage and oregano.
This was so good. So very good. It actually served 6 people and we were all stuffed! Nick had thirds. Fatty.
Take a package of sundried tomatoes (The dry kind, not in oil) and chop them up finely. It should be about a packed in cup of chopped sundried tomatoes.. Add the tomatoes to about 3 cups of milk and heat it up to an almost simmer. Remove from heat and let them sit there for a half hour. In a pan, cook a half stick of butter and add some onions and garlic. Cook for 5 minutes and stir in 2 tablespoons of flour. Make sure to get out all the lumps and cook this for about 3 minutes. Whisk in the warm milk that has all those tomatoes in it. Bring to an almost simmer and it will thicken a bit. Now slowly add all the shredded cheese. Colby jack, fontina and manchego. You cooked pasta, right? Mix the cheese sauce with the pasta right when it comes out of the water. Mix in some chopped oregano and cooked hot Italian sausage. Pour it into a casserole and cover with some more of the colby jack. Bake for 30 minutes at 400 until the top is crispy.
That looks absolutely incredible.
This looks awesome! About how many cups/oz. of cheese and sausage did you use?
Josh –
I used a pound of pasta, 5 small Italian sausages, and I wish I remembered the exact measurements for the cheese! You can sort of eye it from those pictures of the cheeses, but if I had to guess I would say about 12 oz of colbyjack, 10 of fontina, and 6 of manchego. Remember to save some of the colbyjack for the top!
This is some serious comfort food. I can even imagine what it would be like with some percorino romano sprinkled on top!