Homemade Family Macaroni and Cheese recipe idea. A South African oven baked casserole dish with garlic and bacon, for lunch or dinner.
Homemade Family Macaroni and Cheese
A Homemade Macaroni and Cheese recipe idea to create for a larger family meal. This family lunch or dinner meal was my favorite since I was a child and was my mothers favorite dish as well. Couldn’t wait for that meal. Updating it for my taste with added garlic and cream for that amazing rich flavor. Onion and tomato, mushroom mix for between the layers. Oven baked with some bacon added or leave it without, for vegetarians. A South African recipe that is easy and can be simply made with a few ingredients or spice it up as you can.
Family favorite macaroni and cheese with extras, just depends on the day or who is at the table for lunch,
Why should you not rinse pasta?
Don’t rinse the pasta as it removes the starch and we don’t want the starch to be removed as it helps the cheese stick to the pasta. Rinsing the pasta onced cook will cool it down which we do not want, as with this recipe we add garlic and tomato paste, and want the pasta to soak it in.
What seasoning is best for mac and cheese?
Oregano, basil or marjoram as well as Italian spices go well with pasta and cheeses. Add a little in your liquid and sprinkle some on top of the cheese sprinkled on the dish for color and taste.
Why is evaporated milk better for mac and cheese?
If you love to have a different taste for mac and cheese dish without using the rich cream or milk then add some evaporated milk it will give a creaminess and body to the dish without being as heavy as cream. OR even use half and half of milk.
Ingredients
- pasta. macaroni elbows, or any other pasta would do.
- milk or cream or evaporated ideas milk
- Cheese, cheddar or gouda or mozzarella. (or a mix)
- eggs
- tomato paste or tomato and onion mix with onions. (even use slices of tomato)
- bacon pieces. or Tasty Bacon Jam Recipe
- Topped with dried parsley or basil.
For the amounts recommended and instructions to make this family lunch or dinner dish see the recipe attached.
How To
I now add in some different ingredients to the normal plain mac and cheese, because my husband doesn’t like pasta much. Therefore I add bacon.
A glass Pyrex casserole dish is preferred to be used as then you can see when this dish is ready and cooked. It looks bubbly and no liquid is visible.
This is such a versatile dish for a meal and you can add anything you prefer, such as topping it with onion rings or tomato. For a more appealing look. Just love the melted cheese and herbs on top of the mac and cheese. The most popular family meal to make for a crowd.
This amazing dish can be made for a large family gathering and it will always please. Some of my family are vegetarian so I then don’t use bacon or make a separate dish for them. For a small family I use half the ingredients suggested below. For a family of 8 use these amounts.
Recommendations.
(click the highlighted heading for the recipe)
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Homemade Family Macaroni and Cheese
Homemade Family Macaroni and Cheese recipe idea. A South African oven baked casserole dish with garlic and bacon, for lunch or dinner.
- Prep Time: 15 min
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Total Time: 1hrt 15 min
- Yield: 10 1x
- Category: Meals, supper or lunch, dinner
- Method: Oven Baking
- Cuisine: South african
Ingredients
- 750 g of elbow macaroni noodles. (I prefer the small open tubes, but any type you like will do, hollow tubes ones obtain some ingredients in and that makes it good.)
- 1 teaspoon, Himalayan Salt and pepper (as per other bakers, a generous helping of salt when boiling your pasta)
- lots of garlic flakes or crushed garlic cloves.
- 250 g bacon —-(optional, not for vegetarian)
- 4 tomato chopped. (normally add the tomato and onion mix from a can, but if you do not have that then sauté the chopped onion and tomato till tender and use)
- 250 g mushrooms sliced.
- 900 g cheddar and Mozzarella cheese grated (mixed or as preferred)
- 1 liter cream (or milk or even evaporated milk) OR dilute half and half
- 6 to 8 eggs
- dried parsley or basil leaves or Italian spices.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180 to 200 deg. C (360 Deg. – 400 Deg. F)
- Fill a medium cooking pot with water for the boiling of the pasta. Bring to boil with added salt, and place pasta in and cook for a few minutes. (depending on the pasta used)
- Chop tomato and onion, sauté in pan with olive oil or coconut oil, till soft. Sauté mushrooms and add to the tomato and onion mix. Put aside. Or if preferred place the tomato and onion in a blender with small amount of liquid blend.
- Chop up bacon to inch size pieces when frozen, sauté in pan.
- Use a nice large Pyrex glass bowl for the dish.
- Then layer half the pasta at bottom of the dish.
- Generously sprinkle garlic flakes(or fresh garlic, chopped)
- Sprinkle lightly a layer of cheese over the pasta. (not to much.)
- Then layer tomato, onion and mushroom mix, over the pasta, (using half of the mixture)
- Layer cooked cut up bacon over the tomato and onion and mushroom mix. Leaving some bacon for the top layer.
- Layer the rest of the pasta over this mixture and sprinkle more garlic over the pasta.
- Then left over layer of tomato and onion and mushroom mix over pasta.
- left over bacon on top.
- Sprinkle the rest of the cheese on the top generously, the cheese must cover the top. Spice it up with parsley or basil dried leaves. For color and taste. Decorate with a ring of red onions, or as you please.
- Then whisk up the eggs and cream and milk with salt and pepper. Pour mix over the dish until it is soaked up and almost level with the top and all the macaroni’s are covered with the mixture.
- The dish ready for baking. Place on lower rack of the oven to bake. At 200 Deg. C Till brown on top. For about an hour.
- I normally heat the oven up higher to cook quicker if its a large bowl of macaroni.
- To check that its cooked you will see through the glass that all liquid is firm.
- Serve with salad of choice and our choice some tomato sauce.
Notes
A casserole dish can be changed to the families taste, add different ingredients to the dish. The basics stay the same.
These are other casserole dishes made.
- Mushroom and Chicken bake
- Tasty Vegetable dish
- Easy Macaroni and Cheese for Two
- Potato and Garlic Bake
- A Tuna Lasagna Casserole
- Homemade Tangy Lasagna Dish
More Oven Baking Recipes for you. As well as FREE Printables for your kitchen.
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