Pasta is at the heart of many of our favourite recipes – especially during colder and darker months when rich, warming comfort foods are the order of the day. Bertolli have a lovely recipe for macaroni cheese with prosciutto and leeks which we’ve adapted by substituting smoked salmon for the ham. This is very much inspired by a fabulous lunch at Mat Follas’ Bramble Cafe a few months ago.
For most of our shallow frying, Pete and I use a combination of vegetable oil and butter. We love butter for its rich flavour but it burns easily whereas vegetable oils can be heated to a higher temperature without smoking or burning; mixing butter into oil gives us the best of both worlds. A light olive oil is a good choice, neutral in flavour and perfect for cooking.
Today it’s not unusual to have at least one if not two bottles of olive oil in the kitchen cupboard – a regular one for cooking and a richer extra virgin one for salad dressings and drizzling over carpaccio or cheese – and there is much shelf space given to olive oil in most supermarkets. But when I was a kid, it wasn’t so easy to find good quality Italian olive oil here in the UK. Bertolli is one of the brands that has been available in the UK, and respected for its quality and consistency, for as long as I can remember. Far longer than I could possibly remember, in fact – it was founded in Tuscany back in 1865!
One of the products that wasn’t available during my childhood was olive oil in spreadable form. Bertolli make an Original and Light olive oil spread, both made using good quality olive oil. The latest in the range is their Bertolli with Butter, a spreadable combination of olive oil and butter. Of course, you can use it in place of butter – in sandwiches or on jacket potatoes, and in many varied sweet and savoury recipes. Indeed, Gennaro Contaldo recently worked with Bertolli to create a range of pasta recipes that are quick and easy to make, and taste delicious.
I’ve heard people say that making macaroni cheese from scratch is far too time consuming or difficult but it’s actually not that complicated and it doesn’t take hugely long either. And it’s one of those dishes that’s really so much better homemade!
Previously, we’ve always made white sauce by cooking the flour and butter together first to make a roux, and then adding the milk. For a cheese sauce, cheese is simply stirred and melted in to the white sauce. Bertolli’s recipe shortcuts the white sauce by heating butter, flour and milk all at once and to our surprise, it doesn’t result in lumpy sauce – it’s just as silky smooth as the traditional way! Thanks to Bertolli for this wonderful tip; we’ll be making all our white sauce bases this way from now on.
Smoked Salmon & Leek Macaroni Cheese Recipe
Ingredients
- 250 g macaroni or pasta of your choice
- 15 g butter and olive oil spread
- 1 small leek , sliced into thin discs
- 100 g smoked salmon , chopped into thin strips 2-3cm long
For the cheese sauce:
- 50 g butter and olive oil spread
- 50 g plain flour
- 600 ml semi-skimmed milk
- ½ tsp English mustard powder or 1 tsp mustard
- 175 g mature cheddar cheese , grated
- 25 g Parmesan cheese , grated
Notes
Instructions
- Cook pasta according to packet instructions in boiling salted water. Drain well.
- Meanwhile melt the butter and olive oil spread and sauté leek until softened. Set aside.
- Make cheese sauce by placing butter and olive oil spread, flour and milk in a large saucepan and bring to boil, whisking continuously.
- Make sure your grill shelf allows for the size of the ovenproof dish you are using, then preheat the grill to medium high.
- Add Cheddar cheese and mustard to the saucepan and stir until completely melted into the sauce.
- Stir in the cooked pasta, leeks and smoked salmon and mix through well.
- Pour into an ovenproof dish and sprinkle the top with grated Parmesan.
- Place ovenproof dish under the grill until golden brown and bubbling.
- Serve immediately.
If you’d like to serve a side dish with this, I’d recommend either a crisp green salad with a simple homemade vinaigrette dressing or a simple stir fry of courgettes or green beans in butter and garlic.
Save for later on Pinterest using this handy recipe collage pin.
You may also enjoy Michelle’s Pasta all Norma, Camilla’s Italian Tomato Spaghetti and Claire’s Spinach & Ricotta Tortellini with Butter & Mint Sauce.
Kavey Eats was commissioned by Bertolli to develop and publish this recipe.
Please leave a comment - I love hearing from you!26 Comments to "Smoked Salmon & Leek Macaroni Cheese"
Oh I do like the shortcut you mention. I’m sure this is going to be a keeper tip for many of us. The mac and cheese looks and sounds amazing of course. I’ve not eaten yet so I am at risk of serious keyboard droolage here!
Ha ha Kellie!! You often make me drool over my keyboard so fair turnaround!! We had always made the sauce the traditional way but this worked just as well so this way from now on!!!
What a great tip for the white sauce, that will save me loads of time. I like to use an olive spread in sandwiches to get the Benefits of olive oil, so I’ll have to check out the Bertolli with Butter as I haven’t tried it yet.
Yes it’s a great tip for faster white sauce, really impressed! Thanks Lucy!
Oh my gosh this sounds AMAZING! The ultimate comfort food, for sure!
Thanks Elizabeth! We made it a few times, just to check. On not to check, the recipe was spot on the fuse time but it was so tasty I had a hankering!!!
Oh this does sound wonderful. I have family visiting soon and can only imagine just how popular this would be with everyone. I love that you’ve included checking that the dish fits under the grill – that’s categorically the thing I’d always forget!
It’s totally the kind of thing I’ve forgotten in the past, Pen, so thought I’d give that as a quick tip! 🙂
Kavey, I am drooling over this. SO SO good! Love the white sauce tip too.
You need to make some to try for yourself, it really works!
Salmon mac and cheese sounds like my idea of heaven! Totally agree with you that homemade is so much better! You have made me so hungry but its 10am…mac and cheese for brunch?!!
Totally, I’d eat it for breakfast too but I’m weird like that!
There’s nothing quite like a good macaroni cheese – takes me straight back to comforting childhood meals, all cooked for me 🙂
Totally right. Actually, one I know you would really love is a recipe for aubergine and macaroni cheese from the @gastrogeek cookbook. Here: http://www.kaveyeats.com/2013/04/gastrogeeks-amazing-roasted-aubergine-macaroni-cheese.html
This looks really good. I like MC, I like Salmom and I like leeks. So this will be be great for me!
You will enjoy it mum, I’m sure. X
Homemade macaroni cheese is the best. Frozen, chilled, oven warmed or microwaved – all the ready made ones are pale imitations. Thank you for this great spin on the classic. Your cheater’s white sauce is very interesting indeed. May have to get Him Indoors to make that… I don’t have strong enough wrists!
Ha it’s not that hard honestly, but yes get him to make it for you! Only fair, you find the recipe, he cooks it! Perfect division of labour!
Gosh I’ve always done it the old fashioned way forming a roux first. Will have to give this new method a go!
Us too! Such a revelation!
Oh how comforting! You can’t beat mac ‘n’ cheese for a lovely warming autumnal dish. Love the addition of salmon and leaks too.
Thanks Jemma, yes perfect autumn winter food!!
Love smoked salmon, that sounds divine.
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That reads like a delicous variation on an old favourite. Thanks for the inspiration, Kavey.
Hope you enjoy, send me pics when you make it!