We both love Greek food. Feta cheese is one of our favorites. And, as with most Americans, we consider mac and cheese comfort food. The blue box is the basis for our favorite quick meal - Glop. And, I've got a few recipes for amazing pasta and cheese dishes. Yet, we rarely fix mac and cheese in any form because it's so darned filled with fat. When I found this recipe in The Best American Recipes, 2002-2003, I was attracted by the fact it used feta and milk. There was a huge lack of BUTTER and not much olive oil. So, on the menu it went.
I assembled all the ingredients and started fixing the dish. One of the first things you do is make a slurry with the feta and the milk. Well, friends, let me tell you I almost gave up right then and there. That slurry looked awful. I had visions of grainy, chunky mac and cheese. But, since the pasta was already cooked and the spinach was wilted, I forged on. The dish went together so easily. Loved that part. Then into the oven.
The timer went off and still the dish sat in the oven. I turned the oven off but was trying to keep the mac and cheese warm. You see, the meatloaf burgers just weren't cooking. Turns out the grill was out of gas. Once we got them in on the grill pan, dinner got back on track. But, we were about 20 minutes past due on the mac and cheese. Guess what? It was still fantastic. One of the best mac and cheese dishes I've ever had. We both gave it a five out of five the first night AND the next two times we had it leftover. Amazing.
This could easily be upgraded to an entree with the addition of some cubed lamb (pre-cooked) or even some chicken chunks (pre-cooked, again.) It's also one of those recipes you can probably add lots of interesting things to: roasted red bell peppers, oil-packed sun dried tomatoes...
Greek Mac and Cheese
Ingredients:
1 pound macaroni
1/2 lb baby spinach, rinsed
1 1/2 c feta cheese, crumbled
2 1/3 c milk (don't use skim, we used 2% and it was fine)
2/3 c olive oil
2 T fresh lemon juice
2 t freshly ground pepper
1/2 lb cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 c coarsely chopped kalamata olives
1 T minced garlic
2 t minced fresh thyme
3/4 t minced fresh rosemary
1/2 t crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 c freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 mixed chopped fresh herbs (rosemary, thyme and parsley)
Directions:
Cook and drain the pasta. Set it aside.
Blanch the spinach in boiling water for about 15 seconds. Remove it from the saucepan with a slotted spoon and put it in a bowl of ice water. Once it's cooled, drain it and squeeze the moisture out.
Now, it's time to make the slurry. It'll look awful. Don't despair, this will taste wonderful. In the bowl of a food processor, you combine the feta, milk, olive oil, lemon juice, 1 teaspoon of salt and the freshly ground pepper. Don't puree it til it's smooth. You want it a little chunky.
In a large bowl (I cheated and used the baking dish,) mix the drained pasta, the milk/feta slurry,
the spinach, tomatoes, olives, rosemary, thyme, garlic and crushed red pepper. Pour this mixture into a greased 9x13 pan.
Top it with the mixed herbs and the Parmesan cheese.
Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes.
Remember me blogging about finding The Best American Recipes 2002-2003 at the Midland Arts and Antique Mall? Well, we made the Bloody Mary Grape Tomatoes and I found probably a dozen other recipes I wanted to try. In fact, I made a whole week's worth of menus around recipes I wanted to try from that cookbook. The first one we tried was called Blue Plate Meatloaf. I didn't think you'd ever see the photos, read the recipe or even know we'd tried it. We found it very dense and uninteresting. Both of us rather grudgingly gave it a three on our scale of 1-5.
At that point I was worried. Were the grape tomatoes an aberration? Were the rest of the recipes going to be average? Did I have a whole week of average recipes coming up? ARGH! Now, I've cooked for long enough that I know good and well that every cookbook has some clunkers. And, I should've been calm and reasonable. I wasn't. I should have been. Because the next recipe we made was a five. We've now had the Greek Macaroni and Cheese THREE times. That's right, THREE times. And, there's enough there for a fourth time. And, my darling husband who doesn't really care for leftovers has requested it for leftovers. Let me just say it's incredible and you will see the recipe. I promise.
So, back to the meatloaf. I used the leftover meat to make the meatloaf burgers that we absolutely loved. So the basic premise was good. It was just that the meatloaf was pretty dense. My intent was to do what my mom did with leftover meatloaf: fry it then smother it with tomato sauce. She'd take a little butter and flour and make a roux then pour in tomato juice to make a sauce. It was VERY good. But, once I got the meatloaf sliced and floured, my brain remembered the barbecue sauce I used on the meatloaf burgers. What if??? What if I poured a little Jack Daniels and a little shagbark hickory syrup in and kicked the barbecue sauce up? I poured the sauce in a little saucepan and added the Jack and syrup and called Connie in to taste it. " OHHHH, he says. Ohhhh, that's sweet. Not too sweet. Just right. Very good." We had a winner.
Now, before I did anything with the meatloaf, I chopped up a head of broccoli that'd been cooling its heels for far too long in my vegetable crisper. I tossed it with white truffle oil and popped it in the oven. Typically, I've roasted broccoli for about 15 minutes. Tonight, it went for about 20 minutes then I turned the oven off while I finished the meatloaf. The broccoli was just plain caramelized. Connie referred to it as broccoli candy. It was. I've never had broccoli that tasted as good. I'm sure it helped that I dusted the broccoli with a little black truffle salt. But, you know, it'd have been a five even without that. Here's a link to the Truffle Oil Broccoli Recipe.
Neither of us expected much from the meatloaf. It was leftovers. I didn't even have the camera out. We'd used it to take photos of the yard as we did our FIRST 2011 walkaround. So it was on the bar. Connie grabbed it and shot a couple of photos as I served the dinner. Guess what? It was leftovers extraordinaire. I'll make the meatloaf just to have it leftover! And the sauce? Oh La La!!!
Blue Plate Meatloaf with Bourbon BBQ Sauce
Ingredients:
for the meatloaf:
1/2 c fresh bread crumbs
1/2 c buttermilk
1/2 lb ground sausage
1/2 lb ground turkey or veal
1 lb very lean ground beef
1 small yellow onion, finely minced
1/4 c parsley, minced
1 large egg
1/2 t freshly ground black pepper
1/4 t salt
For the topping:
sliced bacon
ketchup
soy sauce
for the leftovers:
flour
freshly ground pepper
bbq sauce
Jack Daniels
shagbark hickory or maple syrup
Directions:
Mix the bread crumbs
and buttermilk well.
Make sure the buttermilk is totally absorbed. Then, mix that with the rest of the ingredients.
Put the mixture on a rimmed baking sheet
and form into a meatloaf shape. Top with sliced bacon then a little ketchup mixed with soy sauce.
Bake at 350 for 45-55 minutes.
To serve this leftover, slice it into 1" thick slices. Flour the slices and brown in olive oil until the slices are nice and browned. Make a sauce with commercial bbq sauce, Jack Daniels and syrup. Heat the sauce and pour it over the meatloaf.
adapted from The Best American Recipes, 2002-2003
