I have never made macaroni and cheese from scratch. Truthfully I've never craved macaroni and cheese and don't view it as comfort food as many Americans do. It's something which I will eat if it's there but not something I go out of my way to eat.
This weekend I bought a butternut squash at the farmers market because it looked cute and it's starting to come in season (hey, it's fall!.) I also had some leftover buttermilk which I'd used to make Buckwheat waffles (more on that in another post.) I googled around for ideas on how I could use both the butternut squash and buttermilk together. Strangely enough I kept coming up with butternut squash and mac and cheese, but no buttermilk. Well I decided to try making mac and cheese with the butternut squash and buttermilk.
The combination of the sharp cheddar and buttermilk was really nice. It wasn't overly cheesy nor was it too tangy from the buttermilk. The tang was very subtle. Also, unlike many recipes, I did not puree any of the butternut sqush. I left all the pieces whole since I like the idea of eating chunks of squash (and I don't need the cheese sauce to be sweetened by any pureed squash.) I roasted the butternut squash instead of boiling it to bring out the inherent sweetness of the squash. You can roast the squash the day ahead if you're pressed for time.
Butternut Sqush Buttermilk Macaroni and Cheese
1 2-lb butternut squash
1 c buttermilk
2 T butter
2 T flour
8 oz sharp cheddar
macaroni noodles
1/4 t paprika
salt and pepper
panko
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Cube the squash, drizzle with olive oil and roast for 25 minutes, or until fork tender.
3. Change oven temperature to 350 degrees
4. Cook macaroni until al dente (according to package instructions)
5. In a pot, make a roux opf hte flour and butter. Stir rapidly so there aren't any lumps!
6. When roux has come together add buttermilk slowly. Keep mixing so that all lumps are gone.
7. Add parika and salt and pepper.
8. Add cheese. Stir until melted. Once melted, turn off heat.
9. Mix in macaroni and butternut squash.
10. Pour into a pan. Top with panko crumbs (as thick or thin of a layer as you want.)
11. Bake for 25 minutes.
12. After 25 you may need to turn the heat up for a few minutes to briefly brown the panko.
