What's Cooking?: Baked Noodles and Cheese

This is baked Noodles and Cheese. The perfect connection going into cold game season. I would bake this sucker before I leave to tailgate on Saturday and then wrap it in sprayed foil to keep it warm, but that is only if your travel time is just across town.

Makes 16 - 1 Cup portions
1 lb. medium size shell noodles
1 lb. bacon, diced
6 tbs flour
2 tbs powdered mustard
6 C 2% milk
1 C yellow onion, finely diced
2 bay leaves
1 tsp of smoked paprika
2 large eggs
8 oz Kasemeister Creamery’s Jalapeno Cheddar (hand Shredded)
8 oz Dimock Dairy Bacon and Onion (Hand Shredded)
8 oz Farm Life Garlic Cheddar Cheese Curd (Small chop)
2 tsp kosher Salt
TT Black Pepper

Topping
6 TBS Butter
2 cup panko bread crumbs.


Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 350 Degrees F.

2) In a large pot of boiling, small dash of salt, cook the pasta noodles to al dente. (Tip cook boiling for 2 minutes and then shut your water off. This will slow down the cooking process and help prevent getting your noodles overcooked or slow down the cooking time, but also make it less likely to overcook.) Once al dente, stop wherever you are at in this recipe and strain them out of the water and let sit in the colander. I also at times run some cool water over them to stop the cooking process. Then let rest we will come back to them in step 4.

3) In a separate pot, on medium heat, render the bacon or cook it until it is browned and crispy. Pull the bacon out and set aside for later. Leave the grease in the bottom of the pan.

4) Cook the onion until translucent in bacon fat. Whisk in the flour and mustard and keep stirring for about 2 minutes. Once all the flour is absorbed, stir in the milk, bay leaf, and smoked paprika. Simmer for ten minutes. Whisking regularly. 

5) This step is optional; you can strain out the onion and bay leaf. Recommended, if you or your family doesn’t like onion in food. Should you be leaving the onion in, you still want to find the bay leaves and pull them out.

6) Temper in the eggs. This is still over medium to low heat. Stir in ¾ of each type of cheese into the milk. I prefer to do this at 4 ounces at a time, or one handful. Keeps it from clumping. Once you have ¾ melted into it. Salt and pepper the sauce and taste it after giving it a good stir. Fold the noodles that are al dente into your cheese sauce.

7) Move the noodle and cheese sauce into a casserole dish with at least one gallon of space or divided as needed based on your dishes available.

8) Topping: Melt the butter in a pan. Place panko bread crumb in the pan and toss to coat.

9) Sprinkle the remainder of the cheese and put the bacon back in on top, and then cover the noodles with the topping.

10) Evenly spread the topping across the entire surface of the noodles and cheese. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes, if the sauce is already hot or if made the day before, cook for 45 to 50 minutes. Let rest for 10 minutes and then the cheese will cut nicely and be ready to eat!


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Leave any questions or comments and I will get back to you!
Tim