Cheesy Pesto Pasta Bake
It’s been one of those days - the kind of day where you feel like you’ve just climbed a neverending mountain of crap with only a pair of rusty crampons and a 75lb rucksack strapped to your back. The kind of day you feel like you should get a trophy for. The kind of day that makes you feel like you’re the only contestant on a never-ending endurance reality show that no one is watching. You’re alive, you’ve made it, and you need some well-deserved sustenance. Gazing tiredly into your fridge you find… next to nothing. Great.
I had one of those days the other week. I had just gotten my 11 month old to sleep, and found a very uninspiring group of ingredients staring back at me from under the florescent light of the fridge. A third of a jar of pesto. A couple random bits of cheese. A sad looking packet of dried macaroni in the pantry. Breadcrumbs. Fantastic.
I guess I could have ordered in, but even making a decision of who to order from seemed like a chore at this point. So I started improvising.
I’ll spare you the details of where exactly my brain went while I was cooking - honestly I’m not even sure my brain had much to do with it at that point. It was more like my body just relied on the muscle memory of recipes that I had made before and mashed them all up together into a new creation. And oh, what a creation.
I ended up with a piping-hot cast iron skillet filled with macaroni tossed in a creamy, cheese-filled sauce that had been flavored with tangy, garlic-y, herbaceous pesto and topped with crunchy, toasted bread crumbs. It was the perfect thing to feed and soothe my tired soul before being consumed by sleep.
Needless to say, the amounts below are approximate. Feel free to alter them as you see fit/as necessity dictates.
INGREDIENTS
About 2TB butter
About 2TB flour
About a cup of whole milk
About a cup of grated Parmigiano Reggiano
About 1/3 cup of pesto (I used a parsley and pine nut pesto, but traditional basil pesto or whatever other type of pesto you have would be fantastic too)
10oz-1lb of dried macaroni (or whatever pasta you have lying around)
About 1/4 cup panko bread crumbs
About 1/3-1/2 cup grated low-moisture mozzarella
Dried basil
Salt
Pepper
METHOD
- Pre-heat oven to 375
- Set a pot of water to boil for macaroni
- Make a roux: Melt the butter in a large cast iron skillet, then add the flour and whisk until it forms a paste. Add the milk while whisking and cook for a few minutes.
- Add the Parmigiano Reggiano to the roux and whisk until incorporated.
- Add the pesto to the sauce and whisk until incorporated.
- Cook the sauce down until you get your desired consistency (I like mine to be on the thicker side, so we cooked it for probably about 10 minutes or so). Season with salt and pepper.
- Meanwhile, once the water has boiled, add macaroni and cook according to instructions.
-Once the macaroni has cooked, drain and add to the sauce, tossing to coat
- Sprinkle the top of the pasta/sauce combination with mozzarella, bread crumbs, a pinch of basil, and a little salt and pepper.
-Drizzle the top with a little olive oil
-Put the skillet into the oven for about 25 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and the sauce is bubbling.