{"id":6175,"date":"2016-11-03T08:00:03","date_gmt":"2016-11-03T16:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kathycasey.com\/blog\/?p=6175"},"modified":"2016-11-03T08:00:03","modified_gmt":"2016-11-03T16:00:03","slug":"mac-cheese-yes-please","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dishingwithkathycasey.com\/?p=6175","title":{"rendered":"Mac & Cheese? Yes Please!"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I think of comfort foods, one of the first<\/u> things that come to mind is mac & cheese. Gooey, warm, and of course, cheeeeesy delicious!<\/p>\n

One of my favorite recipes is my 4-Cheese Penne Bake With Herb Bread Crumbs<\/strong>. Penne pasta, garlic and parmesan white sauce all tossed with loads of shredded cheese \u2013 \u00a0Cheddar, Mozzarella, Jack and Parmesan. Then covered with some fresh, herby bread crumbs for a nice crunch.<\/p>\n

\"mac-cheese\"
\nGooey, melted cheese bake \u2013 yum!
\n<\/strong>Photo from\u00a0Dishing with Kathy Casey<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mac & cheese is perfect to customize. You can add your favorite ingredients like bacon for a cheddar bacon mac. Or how about roasted red peppers, green onions, artichokes… rotisserie chicken would be good\u2026 saut\u00e9ed mushrooms, sausage, green chilies \u2013\u00a0 the possibilities are endless.<\/p>\n

Or how about changing up the sauce part by mixing in some salsa or loads of garlic and curry? Nothing is off limits!<\/p>\n

So get creative and bake up some comforting cheesey goodness! \u2013Kathy<\/p>\n

4-Cheese Penne Bake With Herb Bread Crumbs<\/strong><\/p>\n

* Four-, five- and six-cheese blends are available in most grocers’ dairy sections. If you wish to make your own grated cheese blend, try using a mixture of any of the following:, Jack, mozzarella, Gouda, Swiss, Havarti. I like to use Tillamook sharp cheddar cheese!<\/p>\n

Generously serves 6 – 8.<\/p>\n

Herb Bread Crumbs (recipe follows)
\n4 Tbsp. butter
\n1 Tbsp. minced garlic
\n4 1\/2 Tbsp. flour
\n4 cups milk
\n1 1\/2 tsp. salt
\n1\/4 tsp. black pepper
\n1 cup sour cream
\n1\/4 cup grated high-quality Parmesan cheese
\n1 pound dry penne pasta
\n2 cups (8 oz. wt.) grated four-cheese blend*
\n2 cups (8 oz. wt.) grated Cheddar cheese
\n1\/2 cup milk<\/p>\n

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.<\/p>\n

Make the Herb Bread Crumbs and set aside.<\/p>\n

In a large heavy-bottom sauce pan melt the butter over medium heat. Add the garlic and stir around for about 20 seconds — do not let garlic brown. Stir in the flour and cook for about 1 minute, stirring constantly.<\/p>\n

While stirring vigorously with a whisk, add the milk. Whisk well. Bring to a simmer and whisk occasionally until sauce is thickened, about 3 – 4 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in salt, pepper, sour cream and Parmesan cheese, and set aside.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil and cook penne pasta per package directions until done. Drain well.<\/p>\n

In a very large bowl mix together the pasta and sauce, then fold in the grated cheeses until well combined. Place mixture into a lightly buttered, 13-inch x 9-inch baking pan.<\/p>\n

Sprinkle with Herb Bread Crumbs and bake in a 375-degree oven for about 30 minutes or until pasta is heated through, sides are slightly bubbling and top is golden brown.<\/p>\n

Herb Bread Crumbs<\/strong>
\nMakes about 1 1\/2 cups.<\/p>\n

3 cups packed, 1-inch French bread chunks
\n4 Tbsp. butter
\npinch salt and pepper
\n2 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
\n1\/2 tsp. dry basil leaves
\n1\/2 tsp. dry thyme leaves<\/p>\n

Place bread crumb ingredients in a food processor, and pulse processor on and off until the bread becomes chopped into a fine crumb and is well mixed with the other ingredients.<\/p>\n

Bread crumbs should be refrigerated until used and can be kept frozen for up to 1 month.<\/p>\n

Recipe by Kathy Casey Food Studios\u00ae – www.KathyCasey.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I think of comfort foods, one of the first things that come to mind is mac & cheese. Gooey, warm, and of course, cheeeeesy delicious! One of my favorite recipes is my 4-Cheese Penne Bake With Herb Bread Crumbs. Penne pasta, garlic and parmesan white sauce all tossed with loads of shredded cheese \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6176,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11760],"tags":[11413,9805,341,1106,1068,9806,1453,3769,1111,3770,1231,944,1078,1607,4153,291,9511,9815,1477,11414,1151,5005,293,11884,4095,3620,11865,6085,844,1534,3786,1536,6604,5019,1084,482,5021,9817,11857,11859,2689,11415,466,9649,11416,10275,9818,11866,1582,11417,861],"class_list":{"0":"post-6175","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-dishing-with-kathy-casey-blog","8":"tag-4-penne-bake-with-herb-bread-crumbs","9":"tag-artichokes","10":"tag-bacon","11":"tag-basil","12":"tag-black-pepper","13":"tag-bread-crumbs","14":"tag-butter","15":"tag-cheddar","16":"tag-cheese","17":"tag-cheeses","18":"tag-chicken","19":"tag-curry","20":"tag-flour","21":"tag-food-processor","22":"tag-french-bread","23":"tag-garlic","24":"tag-gouda","25":"tag-green-chilies","26":"tag-green-onions","27":"tag-havarti","28":"tag-herbs","29":"tag-jack","30":"tag-kathy-casey","32":"tag-komo-news","33":"tag-komo-news-radio","34":"tag-komo-radio","35":"tag-mac-cheese","36":"tag-macaroni","37":"tag-milk","38":"tag-mozzarella","39":"tag-mushrooms","40":"tag-news-radio","41":"tag-parmesan","42":"tag-parsley","43":"tag-pasta","44":"tag-penne","45":"tag-penne-pasta","46":"tag-recent","47":"tag-recipes","48":"tag-red-pepper","49":"tag-rotisserie-chicken","50":"tag-salt","51":"tag-sausage","52":"tag-sauteed-mushrooms","53":"tag-sharp-cheddar-cheese","54":"tag-shredded-cheese","55":"tag-sides","56":"tag-sour-cream","57":"tag-swiss","58":"tag-thyme"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dishingwithkathycasey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dishingwithkathycasey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dishingwithkathycasey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dishingwithkathycasey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dishingwithkathycasey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dishingwithkathycasey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dishingwithkathycasey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dishingwithkathycasey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dishingwithkathycasey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dishingwithkathycasey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}