Chorizo mac ‘n’ cheese

Serves:

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 2 cup macaroni
• 50 g unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup plain flour
• 500 ml milk
• 100 ml cream
• 1 1/2 cup tasty cheese (grated)
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese (grated)
• 1 cup broccoli (cut into pieces)
• 1 cup zucchini (finely diced)
• 1 cup red capsicum (finely diced)
• 1 unit chorizo sausage (peeled, finely chopped, cooked)
• 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
• 1/2 cup almond meal

Method

Preheat oven to 180C (160C fan-forced). Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to the boil and cook the macaroni. This will take around 8 minutes. Tip the pot into a colander in the sink to catch all of the pasta. Using the same pot, melt the butter and stir in the flour.

Keep stirring over a low heat until it starts to smell like biscuits. Stir in the milk and cream 1/3 at a time, whisking vigorously to incorporate. This process is helped along if the milk is quite warm. Fold in 2/3 of each of the cheeses until combined.

To assemble, mix the pasta, cheese sauce, vegetables and chorizo together and pour into a deep baking tray or shallow casserole dish.

Combine the remaining cheese with the breadcrumbs and almond meal and scatter evenly over the top.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until crispy. Serve as is or with a little chopped tomato salad on the side.

More pasta recipes:

• Chorizo pasta
• Bacon and bean fettuccine
• Curtis Stone’s fettuccine bolognaise
• Speedy pasta boscaiola
• Ear pasta with bacon and peas
• Sage butter ravioli

Serving Suggestions

Note

• You can use cheddar cheese or tasty cheese, whatever you have or prefer.
• Almond meal on top adds a surprising sweetness to the crust.
• Keep the kids busy by getting them to help with cheese grating, weighing ingredients and assembling the final product. Bigger kids could use a small knife to cut up the broccoli florets.
• This could be assembled ahead of time and refrigerated, in which case it will need to cook for around 30 minutes in the oven.
• This recipe was created by Adam Clements for Kidspot.