What do you do with a mound of cheese? Make a melty cheeeeesy dinner. Obviously. Cheese. I don’t think I have expressed my love for cheese before. Which is shocking. Because I love cheese. Like, really a lot. The best kind of cheese? The melted kind. Seriously. Any cheese melted over anything makes it immediately 900% better. Mmmm. Melty. I think I have stumbled across something truly amazing. Like, I-can-now-stop- searching-because- I-found-the- Holy-Grain-amazing. What, you ask could make me speak in hyperbole about a simple cheese-laden dish? One word: nutmeg. I’m just a teeny bit obsessed with nutmeg. It has always been a stable in the fall/holiday baking adventures, but combining it with meat? Genius.
Mac & Cheese is the ultimate feel-good meal and typically I favor some boxed version. But when you have leftover Italian prosciutto, you know, from a real Italian market, you get a little creative. Thank you creativity, for providing the tastiest, cheesiest meal on a wintery night.
Baked Mac & Cheese
5-6 servings– or 3-4 normal helpings
Ingredients
½ box of pasta (any variety, but I prefer farfalle or cellentani)
2-3 tbsp. unsalted butter
⅓ Cup of Whole Milk
4-6 slices prosciutto, sliced thinly
1 Cup colby cheese, shredded
½ Cup smoked gouda, shredded
½ Cup greyure cheese, shredded
2 tsp ground nutmeg
salt + pepper to taste
Directions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
- cook pasta as indicated on box
- shred cheese as pasta is cooking, you can use any three varieties (or more) but I like to stick to three so the flavors don’t overwhelm each other and you have a nice well-balanced flavor.
- after pasta is cooked, drain and rinse, then place in square, glass or ceramic baking dish
- Add butter mix until melted
- Begin adding in prosciutto and mix until well incorporated
- Finally, add cheese, making sure each variety is evenly distributed evenly, creating a nice layering in the baking dish. Add nutmeg and mix one more time to ensure there is cheese, prosciutto, and nutmeg evenly throughout.
- Save some cheese — about ¼ C. in total — for sprinkling on top, add salt and pepper to taste.
- Bake for 20-25 mins, or until top is bubbling and cheese has browned a bit.
The Little Red Mixer 