Now I know a lot of people got a similar recipe passed down through their families. My roommate certainly said his grandmother had made something on this line, and in turn this one was inherited from my grandmother. She used to make this for us on Easter instead of the usual scalloped potatoes and ham that my mother was fond of, so I learned to make it from her and since today is Easter I thought it only fitting to both make this dish for myself and my roommate and share with you all!
You'll Need The Following;
- 12oz elbow macaroni pasta (or really any pasta you like but elbow is sort of traditional mac and cheese)
- 24oz cottage cheese (any curd size will do but the smaller the better, I only had large on hand so it had to do)
- 12oz sour cream
- 2 eggs
- A good amount of bread crumbs (I made my own so I don't know exactly how much so yeah)
- 4 cups shredded yellow cheese
- 1 pound of bacon
This is important - do not cook your bacon before hand. I cooks when you bake the mac and cheese, and I've found if you try to cook it before hand it just burns when you bake it.
As with anything I bake, the first thing is to preheat your oven. Set it to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and let it preheat while you move on.
The next first step is to boil your pasta. Prepare it the way you like, with or without salt in the water, al dente or a little more cooked, whatever. Just get it in water and get it cooking.
While that's going on take your cottage cheese, sour cream and eggs and mix them up together in a big bowl.
Next add 2 cups of your cheese to the mix and chop up half your bacon into small pieces and add that too. You'll get a nice chunky mixture like this.
Take a 13x9 inch pan and grease it up all nice. I used leftover bacon grease from when we've cooked bacon before (I keep a stash in the fridge) but cooking spray or coconut oil or whatever else you usually grease a pan with works.
Mix your macaroni into the mix of cheese and bacon and stuff from the previous pictures, then dump that whole mix into your pan once it's greased up.
Take the other half of your bacon and layer it on top, then top that off with the remaining 2 cups of cheese and your bread crumbs. I admit I used too much here, but I've never made my own before so I was just experimenting with it. Still tastes great, though!
Shove that bad boy in the oven, which should now be fully preheated, for an hour. As I said I clearly used too may bread crumbs so not all of them got soaked. But it was still tasty, and I learned not to use to many next time if I have to make my own instead of store buying them.
So make, and enjoy! Another family recipe, straight from me to you all. And happy Easter, if that's the sort of thing you celebrate :D
Banner was made by me in Photoshop. All other pictures here were taken by me specifically for this post. I have been a home cook for over a decade, and any questions or comments about this recipe are encouraged!
If you like this content resteems, upvotes and comments are much appreciated <3