Hearty Baked Cheeses and Bacon Macaroni
This fantasy take on Macaroni and Cheese is an easy way to make a ton of gooey cheesy food for your next DnD session.
Servings 8 adventurers
Calories 600kcal
Cost 20 gold
Equipment
- Pan
- 9"x13" baking dish
- Large Mixing bowl
Ingredients
- 1 lb. dried elbow pasta we used pumpkin shaped noodles from Trader Joe's for an extra Autumn feel
- 8 slices bacon
- ⅓ cup unsalted butter
- ½ cup all purpose flour
- 2 ½ cups half and half
- 1 ½ cups whole milk
- 6 cups grated cheeses divided into 4 even portions, sharp cheddar is a good base cheese and we also threw in some Goat and Parmesan
- ½ Tbsp. salt
- ½ tsp. black pepper
- 1 tbsp paprika
- 1 tbsp garlic powder or more, to taste (we love garlic)
- 3 tbsp breadcrumbs optional
Instructions
- Preheat the cooking hearth or oven to 325 °F (163 °C)
- Cook your pasta according to the directions on the box but pull them off the heat about a minute early (we want it to finish cooking in the oven). Drain and drizzle with olive oil.
- Cook bacon in a large pan until crispy. Remove and set them on a paper towel to dry then crumble the bacon. Leave the grease in the pan and let cool a few minutes.
- Set the cooking fire or stove under your bacon pan to medium heat and melt your butter in the bacon grease. Sprinkle in the flour and mix. Cook for 1 minute while whisking then slowly pour in the milk and half and half, continuing to stir. Cook until thickened.
- Remove from heat, dump in the spices and bacon, then slowly fold in 2 portions of the cheeses until melted and gooey.
- Mix the noodles in with the gooey cheese in a mixing bowl, pour a layer into a greased baking dish, then one portion of the unmelted cheeses, then rest of the pasta, then the last portion of cheeses. Top with breadcrumbs if you like a bit of a crunch!
- Place in your cooking hearth for 15 minutes.
- Serve to your Dungeons and Dragons party and enjoy!
Notes
This is one of the best foods on all the Planes. Extremely gooey, with a warm bacon crunch and garlic zing. It's wonderful comfort food to make for a cold or difficult DnD session or simply to enjoy with friends. We hope you enjoy!