Macaroni gratin with walnuts
Sometimes I start making a recipe and I have an idea in my head on how it is gonna taste… Sometimes that idea is correct and sometimes I just get blown away by the flavors in a taste that far exceeds my expectations. This is such a dish. It seems incredibly simple and well, it really IS incredibly simple, but maybe because of that I had not expect all the flavors to come out so wonderful. It’s basically macaroni and cheese but with a twist.. 
The original recipe called for all sorts of cheeses I could not find in the supermarket and I didn’t want to venture out much further then the supermarket so I just bought a couple of cheese that I thought would work well and went with that. I had given myself a day of today. Being my own boss is wonderful most of the time, but it also means that you sort of forget to really take some time off. I mean; I don’t always work, but there is hardly a day that I don’t do at least something for work. As soon as I position myself behind the computer I get into work mode. And after our holiday it’s been hectic with customers wanting me to do some photography work that they saved until I was back…
So I figured I deserved a day of cooking and blogging… I made the madeleines in the previous post in the morning and wanted to do something in the little cocottes I also got for christmas. I just think they are so very cute don’t you think so too? Tom got me four different colors so I could pick which color to use when taking photographs… Anyway back to the dish… I am putting the recipe here below but I didn’t really measure much. Just threw in until I thought I had the right flavor, so just use your instinct. I did put down the approximate qty’s so you have a starting point if you want to make it too.
Macaroni gratin with walnuts
Yield: 1
Ingredients:
125 gr macaroni
20 gr gorgonzola
20 gr Grana Padano, grated
25 gr Old Amsterdam, grated. If you do not have Old Amsterdam in your part of the world, it is basically a very ripe old cheese. Gouda type of cheese with a sharp flavor. The flavor is much stronger then regular Gouda cheese and has a different taste, hard to describe really...
1 big tbsp of mascarpone
50 ml cream
1 tbsp of butter
20 gr of walnuts
Directions:
Preheat the oven at 200C.
Cook the macaroni in salted water for about half the time you would normally use. Use your common sense here. The recipe stated to boil the pasta for 1 minute only, but my pasta needed about 9 to become all dente, so for this recipe I cooked the pasta for 5 minutes and that worked perfectly. As soon as you're done cooking cool under cold water tap.
In a pan heat the butter on low heat and once melted add the mascarpone, cream, gorgonzola, grana padano and half of the Old Amsterdam. Stir until it is all melted nicely together and forms a thick creamy texture. Add salt and pepper to your taste. Chop the walnuts finely and add to the cream.
Add the pasta and mix well. Put the mixture into a small ovendish or into one of those cute cocottes. Add the remaining cheese on top and put in the oven.
After about 15 minutes check if the top is nice and brown. If not you can put the grill on for a short while or just wait until it is nice and golden.
Obviously you can add whatever cheeses you like to this mix but I totally loved this little dish. In fact... I made the mistake of making this around 4 pm. And since it is quite filling I am not sure I am going to be needing any dinner any time soon!
Recipe by Simone van den Berg
Appetizer
Asian
Bread
Breakfast
Desserts & other sweets
Healthy
That macaroni cheese looks wonderful! What a gorgeous combination of ingredients/cheeses.
Cheers,
Rosa
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This gratin looks scrumptious!
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I’m sure the walnuts enhanced the taste of that macaroni gratin!
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Mac and cheese is top-3 in comfort foods..love these little red vessels (have some too)!
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I’ve never made baked macaroni, only stove-top… That’s just what I grew up on. This looks really good though, and for the first time ever, it’s making me want to try the baked version!
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I love what you have done here Simone! The walnuts would have certainly lifted it to another level. Bring on the comfort food!
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From the title of the post to the pictures, this one got me good. Never thought of walnuts as the crunch factor for mac and cheese. Love it.
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It was so good to see you in my comment section! I missed your bright, shiny comments that always make me smile and/or give me a chuckle
That said..wow, wow, wow, mac and cheese is comfort food at it’s best, and yours is eye candy, depressing eye candy because I can’t grab it off the screen!! I truly have yet to try a really good homemade mac and cheese, but yours is looking like it could be the one. Excited to try it when time clears up a bit (and my body gets back to normal after all the fatty foods I’ve been eating!).
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oh my this looks and sounds delish. Love the combination of cheeses. Definitely a decadence meal!
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MMMMMMM,;..what an incrdibly tasty gratin!! Looks truly appetizing too!
I love Old Amsterdam ! A perfect blend of real flavours in here!
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I am loving the add of the walnuts. It looks wonderful.
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This sounds so good. The cheese combination sounds really delicious. And adding walnuts makes it kind of healthy, right?
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Loving all that melty cheese. Sounds wonderful!
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This is a lovely one pot meal I will love to make in the weekends!
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I almost registered for Food Blogger connect in London, too – but most of the people I know are on this side of the ocean, so I chickened out! I would have selected the red dish, too! They sure are cute! Can’t go wrong with mac and cheese – ever – and I do like it baked best.
valerie
Took DSLR bootcamp and it will take me a while to practice and implement – but I am on overload from it.
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Simone (junglefrog) — February 23rd, 2011 at 08:46
Ooo too bad you didn’t register!! How fun would that have been to finally meet in person… Can’t wait to see the results of your bootcamp!
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I adore the addition of walnuts. What a depth of flavours! Lovely photos and post! Thank you for sharing your recipe.
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