Our Descent into the Underworld

Ham and Cheese Bowties

Ingredients

• 8 ounces farfalle (bow tie) pasta
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 cups milk
• 1/2 teaspoon prepared mustard
• 2 1/2 cups shredded Colby cheese
• 4 ounces cooked ham, julienned
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain.
3. In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Saute garlic 30 seconds. Whisk in flour, salt and pepper. Cook and stir until smooth. Pour in milk, a little at a time, stirring constantly. Bring to a boil for 1 minute. Stir in mustard and Colby. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until cheese is melted. Remove from heat and stir in pasta and ham.
4. Pour into a 2 quart baking dish. Sprinkle with Parmesan.
5. Bake 20 to 25 minutes, until bubbly and golden.

Valerie and I chose this recipe as our first because, well I hadn't eaten anything except frozen yogurt all day, so I wanted something with meat in it and I love bowties (one of my favorite noodles-noodles probably another future blog). Here's what we thought:
On the plus side:
(+) This recipe involves mustard, which I've never really thought of as an ingredient for macaroni and cheese. I just got into dijon mustard, after a long period of mustard celibacy, and I have to say mustard is delicious. It can be way overpowering, but here the 1/2 a teaspoon of mustard is exactly the right kick this macaroni and cheese needed.
(+)Bowtie pasta, or farfalle for the Italians among us, is a deliciously whimsical pasta. Nuff said.
(+) The Parmesan sprinkled on top. To die for, to die for! It adds another little kick to this recipe (thats two kicks if you're counting) and adds a nice little top crust.
(+) Garlic is always good.
(+) The cheese sauce is super good, the colby we used was orange, so it looked like that fake nacho cheese (which I love) but this cheese sauce is actually fresh. Its creamy, and gooey with just the right amount of flavor.
(+) This recipe is relatively easy to follow and doesn't take much time, only 45 minutes to make, which is pretty groovy.
On the minus side:
(-) The ham. This is my own personal preference but I hate ham. I consider it the lowest of all pig products (bacon being the highest, holla!)I usually try to limit its consumption to once or twice a year over the holidays, but even then I would rather consume lamb or turkey. Anyway, the ham actually caused Valerie and I to argue, because I have no idea what julienned ham looks like, Valerie swears its just thinly sliced ham, and she's the one who looked it up online. So she just buys some sandwich ready ham from the deli, I don't think that is what the ham is supposed to look like. Arguing ensues. I follow her instructions. I think if we properly julienned bits of ham, then it would have been alright, but I don't think ham would add anything to this recipe. But again maybe its my personal preference.
(-) To experienced chefs, the cheese sauce is probably nothing to worry about, but for me, making the cheese sauce, was a little scary, because things like melting cheese happened faster than I thought. It didn't help that Valerie, the one who read the recipe was in the bathroom and everything I read came as a shock.

Overall, this recipe was solid, I would definitely nom it again, so would Shannon, our guest, and my Mom.

I'd probably take out the ham though, ham sucks.