This grilled ham and cheese pasta is the perfect comfort food after an active day outdoors. Easy to prepare and ready in less than 30 minutes. I published the first version already back in 2008, on gerechtenweb, the Dutch counterpart of surprising.recipes. But it is still one of my favorite comfort dishes. Further down in the article, after the recipe you will learn which pasta types are the most suitable to use in this recipe.
Grilled ham and cheese pasta
Ingredients
- 125 gram pasta penne, macaroni, ...
- 50 gram cooked ham
- 50 gram bacon bits
- 20 gram butter
- 1,5 tablespoon plain flour
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 red onion
- 2 dl milk
- 1 dl cream
- 100 gram grated cheese type Emmental
- 50 gram grated Parmesan or similar
- 1 teaspoon nutmeg
- pepper to taste
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Finely chop the garlic and onion. Cut the cooked ham into pieces.
- Bring water to the boil for the pasta and cook as directed on the package.
- Melt the butter and briefly fry the onion and garlic in it. Then add the bacon bits.
- Add the flour after a few minutes. Stir until the flour is fully incorporated.
- Then add the milk. Stir until the sauce begins to thicken.
- Add the grated cheese (Emmental, Parmesan). Just like the pieces of cooked ham.
- Finally, add the cream and spices to the sauce. Keep it warm now. Don't let it cook anymore.
- When the pasta is cooked, drain it. Then mix it with the cheese sauce.
- Pour everything into an ovenproof plate. Finish with a layer of extra Emmentaler cheese.
- Place the dish under the grill in a preheated oven at 210°C. After about 10 minutes it will start to brown. The sign that your ham and cheese pasta dish is ready.
Nutrition
Which pasta should I use for this grilled ham and cheese pasta?
Of course you know Mac&cheese. This leads us directly to the first type of pasta that suits perfectly well for grilled ham and cheese pasta: macaroni. Macaroni is a thicker type of pasta that you have in both tube and elbow form. Both are suitable, although I prefer the elbow shape.
But also other types of pasta can be used very well for this recipe. Like for example penne and rigatoni. These are also more robust pasta types that mix perfectly with the sauce and will soak up the flavors. This contributes to an optimal taste experience. Finer pastas are therefore slightly less suitable for this dish. just like long pastas, because you can't really wind them around your fork in this case.
Do you want to learn more about the different types of pasta? And their usage? Then you may want to read these articles:
- 33 types of Italian pasta and their usage. (Jessica Gavin)
- List of pasta (Wikipedia)
- an A-Z guide of (almost) every single type of pasta (Food52)
More surprising.pasta
The Italian kitchen is known for its fantastically tasty pasta recipes. Here's an overview of even more tasty and surprising recipes with Italian pasta:
- Tagliatelle with healthy Gorgonzola sauce.
- Sicilian tuna pasta with baked caper.
- Vegetarian gnocchi with yellow bell pepper.
- Cinnamon butter gnocchi.
- Linguine alla puttanesca.
- Minestrone meal soup.
- Cappelletti con passata.
If you speak Dutch, you can find the Dutch version of this recipe on gerechtenweb.blog.
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