When I make dinner, I’m not big on main dish/side dish combos, especially when I’m cooking on a weekday. It’s just so much easier when everything is in one dish and you can get your veggies and your main course at the same time. It also easier to save for leftovers for the next day, which is a prerequisite for most of the meals I make. I’ve always associated macaroni and cheese with a side dish, but when it was requested that I make macaroni and cheese I figured, why couldn’t it be dinner? Add in some extras like prosciutto, tomatoes and a pepper, and it becomes a main course.

I looked a bunch of mac and cheese recipes in preparation for making this, and the following recipe is based on an amalgamation of those, somewhere between the fancy-cheese, many ingredient recipes and the super simple ones.

It starts out by basically creating a bechamel sauce for the base. The butter is melted, a bit of flour added for thickening, and the milk (preferably at least room temperature) is poured in slowly while whisking constantly to prevent curdling. This is cooked down until it thickens… most recipes don’t say how much, but it should be about the consistency of heavy cream.

When it’s thickened the sauce is removed from the head and the shredded cheese is added, which melts pretty rapidly and forms a loose sauce. You want the sauce to be not too thick so that your finished product doesn’t turn out too dry. You can use pretty much any combination of cheese that you want (sharp cheddar is always a favorite, though), and I just eyeballed it as to what would be the proper amount. After the sauce is ready, the cooked macaroni is added.

Prosciutto and jalapeno chopped and at the ready to be added to the mixture before place in the baking dish. Not pictured here are the diced tomatoes, which should be drained well before added so as not to thin out the sauce too much.

Into a 3-quart baking pan…

And covered with about a cup of panko bread crumbs (so much better than regular bread crumbs because of their crunchiness), some extra shredded cheese, and some ground black pepper.

Baked until the top becomes browned and the sauce is bubbling. Definitely a success! The prosciutto, jalapeno and tomato chunks blended in so well that almost every bite included some of each. I might bump up the jalapeno if I made this again (I like a kick, and one jalapeno wasn’t really cutting it for this huge dish), but otherwise I was extremely pleased.

Macaroni and Cheese with Prosciutto, Tomatoes and Jalapeno

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons butter, plus more for the dish
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 2 cups milk, lukewarm
• 12 oz Extra Sharp Cheddar, shredded
• 5 oz Monterey Jack, shredded, some reserved for sprinkling on top
• 1 lb macaroni noodles, cooked
• 1 jalapeno, diced
• 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes, drained well
• 4 oz prosciutto, chopped
• Dash of cayenne pepper, nutmeg, salt and ground black pepper
• 1 cup panko bread crumbs

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF and butter a 3-quart baking dish.
2. Melt the butter over medium heat until it turns foamy. Add the flour and whisk to combine well.
3. Slowly add milk while constantly whisking to prevent curdling.
4. Bring the mixture to a simmer and let cook until the mixture thickens to the consistency of heavy cream.
5. Remove the mixture from the heat and stir in the shredded cheese. Set aside to let the cheese melt completely; it should form a loose sauce. Stir in a few spices like cayenne pepper and nutmeg.
6. Fold in the cooked macaroni and stir to coat well, then add the prosciutto, pepper and tomatoes, mixing well to incorporate.
7. Pour into the baking dish and spread out evenly. Cover the top evenly with panko bread crumbs, the reserved shredded cheese and some fresh ground black pepper.
8. Bake about 30 minutes, until it is browned and bubbling.