Cheese Pasta Bake

This is a cheese flavored pasta dish with a nice crunchy top. It’s not sloppy or saucy and its definitely not conventional “mac-n-cheese”. I think the pasta choice does impact the dish, I like to use cavatappi rigati (see notes).

Ingredients

• 6oz/170g dry double elbow ridged pasta (cavatappi rigati – see notes)

Sauce

• 6oz/170g sharp cheddar cheese, grated
• 1c/250g cottage cheese
• 1 tsp white pepper
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 TBSP cornstarch (EU corn flour)
• 1 tsp Italian seasonings
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1c/240ml milk

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350f/180c
2. Cook the pasta according to the package instructions except drain it from the water 2 minutes earlier then it says to. You want the pasta to be underdone so its still a bit hard. Not al dente, that would be too much. Set aside till needed.
3. Put 1 ounce of grated cheddar in a bowl, bash up the potato chips and add them to the bowl. Set aside.
4. Put the cottage cheese, pepper, salt, cornstarch, seasonings and milk into a blender or food processor (I use a beaker and an immersion blender) and blend until smooth. Pour into a saucepan large enough to hold the sauce and the pasta.
5. Place the saucepan over medium-high heat and whisk the mixture constantly until it thickens.
6. As soon as the mixture thickens remove the pan from the heat and add the cheddar cheese. Whisk in the cheese until it is completely melted then fold in the drained pasta.
7. Pour into a 2 quart/2 liter casserole dish, spread evenly and sprinkle over the cheese and potato chip topping.
8. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, the dish is ready when the top is lightly golden and browned.
9. Let cool for 5 minutes before serving.

Serves 4 as a side dish or 2 as a main dish

Cavatappi rigati is simply double elbow macaroni with ridges, I find it perfect for this but if you can find it try plain double elbow. If you want to know more about it, Wiki has some great info.