Comfort food includes spinach????

Well, labour day has come and gone and I am determined to get back into the swing of things with cooking. I know I've been slacking (sorry) on the cooking front, but just trying to pack so much into the last few weeks of summer before the weather turns.



I had a trying week last week with the death of someone fairly young in age who I got along with. Every now and then a smack of your own mortality hits you square in the face and makes you sit up and take notice. And whenever there is something trying in my life like this, I eat carbs. Lots and lots of carbs.



I had bookmarked this amazing grown up version of mac and cheese on Soup Belly's blog. I set to work making this recipe, even though it was more time consuming on a weeknight than I usually like. There is something that is cathartic about diving into a time intensive (not labour intensive) recipe.



To make the recipe more grown up friendly it has spinach. I um....maybe cooked it in the bacon fat (this is part of how to make spinach more palatable for people).......... The only other slight issue I had was tempering my egg. I was rushing at that point and didn't get enough of the liquid into it so it kind of scrambled. No big deal in the grand scheme of things though.

Shells ‘n Cheese with Spinach and Bacon (serves 6-8) (adapted from Soup Belly's blog)

Prep time: 30 min.
Bake time: 30 min.

Ingredients:

8 oz. pasta shells
4 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
10 oz. chopped spinach, cooked
3 Tbsp. butter
3 Tbsp. flour
3 cups milk
1/2 cup yellow onion, finely diced
1/2 tsp. paprika
1 egg
12 oz. cheddar cheese, shredded
1 tsp. salt
pepper to taste

Topping:
3 Tbsp. butter
1 cup panko bread crumbs

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2) In skillet, cook bacon and crumble. Reserve bacon fat on skillet for bread crumbs later. Boil spinach as instructed on box. Cook pasta in large pot of salted boiling water until al dente.

3) You can use either a 2 quart casserole dish, or two smaller casserole dishes to gain the maximum surface area for covering with golden bread crumbs. I used 2 dishes, of course. Pour pasta, bacon and spinach into dishes, mixing together.

4) In a medium size pot, make the sauce. Melt butter on medium heat, whisk in flour until thickened. Stir in milk, onion and paprika. Simmer for 10 minutes. Temper in egg. To temper, just stir in a few tablespoons of the hot milk from the pot into the egg, then pour the egg into sauce, stirring vigorously. Stir in 3/4 of the cheese. Add salt and pepper.

5) In the skillet with bacon fat, heat on medium and toss in bread crumbs to coat. If you have cholesterol issues, or feel that this is ‘unhealthy’, use olive oil instead of bacon fat.

6) Pour sauce into casserole dishes, mixing to combine. Add remainder of cheese, and sprinkle bread crumbs on top. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and let rest for 5 minutes before serving. Enjoy!