Winter doesn’t seem to want to cut us a break, and when it’s really cold outside, my body naturally craves carbs. Something I can eat a whole bowl of, and feel better for doing so. My inner child leans strongly towards mac and cheese (in any incarnation), and today was no different. With my daughter by my side (she’s my biggest mac and cheese fan and requester), it was an easy choice to make for supper tonight.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. All good things in life start with butter, onions and bacon.
Normally, I would settle on the classic mac and cheese recipe that I make whenever Meat and Tater Man is out of town (he doesn’t go for pasta with cheese or cream based sauces…crazy, I know). However, this weekend, I was re-reading my copy of Nigella Lawson’s Nigellissima, and found her Mountain Macaroni recipe, which she had devised from reading Manuela Darling-Gansser’s travelogue/recipe book, Winter in the Alps, an ode to her beautiful homeland of Switzerland, with gorgeous photography, beautiful stories and childhood memories, and equally engaging and mouthwatering recipes.
Adding the cream to the bacon and onions just makes it better. Trust me.
Since I had both the original source and the quoted one, I reverted back to Manuela’s recipe, as Nigella had bumped up her ingredients to feed a larger (presumably teen) crowd. Feeding just the both of us, I settled on Manuela’s ingredients list, and borrowed a bit of Nigella’s technique to minimize extra pans in the cooking process. A wholly successful experiment, and both daughter and I were so delighted with the results that this will likely hit our menu soon again, and when Meat and Tater Man is back in town. You see, this wonderful recipe is a classic Swiss recipe for mac and cheese, only it includes bacon and potatoes in the dish. That’s right, mac and cheese meets meat and potatoes in one blissful dish. A crowd pleaser, for sure, and there’s no doubt Meat and Tater Man will go for a plate full of this when he comes back home, cheese sauce aside.
Don’t you just want to dive in right now?
When I first read about this recipe, I thought it a bit counter-intuitive to make a dish that included both pasta and potatoes, and I suspect I thought that was odd simply because I was raised to include only one starchy side on a plate. So any starch + potato combo seems unusual to me. At any rate, my carb cravings (and undying love of bacon) allowed me to overlook such a thing, and I’m so glad I did. Soooo glad. Like, really, really glad.
Pasta al forno, Swiss style.
The potatoes seem to complement the pasta instead of overwhelming them, and they help absorb all of that butter, cream, and tons of Swiss cheese, becoming meltingly tender, and a perfect foil to the onions and bacon. This tastes so good, but better than that, this tastes comforting. The kind of food that can change a mood, stop a cry, or bury an old hurt. It’s food that soothes the soul as well as the stomach, and I can totally understand why the Swiss enjoy this casserole in the heart of winter. Imagine, being outside in the Swiss mountains, facing bitter cold, and then coming indoors to the smell of bacon, onions, potatoes and cheese, all nestled in a baked pasta casserole. To die for, and worthy of restoring any humanly powers we need to brave another day of snowstorms and ice.
This made Meat and Tater Man want to come home last night.
Both Manuela Darling-Gansser and Clifford A. Wright (in his crave-inducing book, Hot and Cheesy) advise that this dish is traditionally served in Switzerland with fresh homemade applesauce, though Manuela prefers a simple mixed salad served on the side. The apple sauce idea really intrigued me, but I wasn’t ready to commit to serving my casserole with apple sauce (and frankly, on a weekday, I wasn’t prepared to start making apple sauce from scratch as Clifford advises to serve it as a condiment to the casserole).
Apple sauced apple crisp, to finish a perfect meal. Sooo, so good.
However, I couldn’t let go of the idea of it all, so I whipped up an apple crisp for the two of us (using the last two Granny Smith apples I had, and some bottled apple sauce…I just had to incorporate the apple sauce component into my meal somehow, for all the suggestion was worth) that baked in the oven while we were eating supper. The scent of apples and cinnamon while we were eating supper was nothing less than spectacular, and looking at the thick white blanket of snow outside our kitchen window, fireplace crackling in the family room next to the kitchen table, for a moment, I felt briefly transported to Switzerland, a place I’ve never been to, but long to go. And I think I’ve reproduced that same feeling those Swiss folks might have when feasting on Alpen Magrone and apple sauce on a cold winter’s day. A most delightful food memory that will stay with me for a long time to come, I’m certain.
Whether you call this Mountain Macaroni or Alpen Magrone, your family will love it. This has everything you crave - pasta, potatoes, bacon, butter, cream and lots of cheese. A crowd pleaser any time of year.
Adapted from Manuela Darling-Gansser's Winter in the Alps.
Ingredients
- 3 cups (10 1/2 oz) penne or macaroni
- 4 oz butter, plus extra for greasing your casserole
- 1 large onion, sliced
- 6 slices (5 oz) bacon, diced
- 7 oz cream
- 1 bay leaf
- freshly ground black pepper
- 7 oz grated cheese (about 3 1/2 cups), preferably Swiss, like Gruyere and Emmental (I used a combination of these two)
- 10 1/2 oz potatoes, peeled and diced (I used one extra large baking potato)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400F. Butter a large ovenproof casserole dish.
- Bring a large pot of water to boil, and add the potato cubes. Bring back to the boil for 5 minutes then add the penne. Boil the penne until nearly cooked (about 10 minutes), but still slightly underdone, as it will continue baking in the oven. Just before draining the pasta and potatoes, reserve a cup of cooking liquid to add to the sauce later. Drain the pasta and potatoes, and set aside.
- In a large frying pan or saucepan (big enough to contain all of the pasta and cheese mixture after cooking) over medium heat, saute the onion and bacon with 1 oz of butter, until the mixture starts to colour, about 5 minutes.
- Add the cream and bay leaf, and sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper.
- Gently simmer the cream for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat, and remove the bay leaf from the pan and discard.
- Add the grated cheese and pasta/potatoes into the pan, and toss well to coat the pasta and potatoes. Add some of the pasta water (about 1/2 cup, and up to a cup full), and stir well to blend. You may need to add a bit more pasta water, as you’ll want your sauce to be runnier than you would normally serve, as the pasta will absorb most of this sauce while baking in the oven.
- Dump this mixture in your buttered ovenproof casserole, and dot the pasta with the remaining 3 oz of butter.
- Bake for 30 minutes, or until it bubbles and starts to turn golden.
Hallo Chantal
I came across your blog when searching for an alpen macaroni recipe and thankfully I came across your recipe it was so easy to follow and was a big success with my family my hubby especially he thinks its the best he has tasted and we also live in Switzerland and have tasted many an alpen macaroni. I think your easy to follow recipe will now feature on our weekly family dinner menu
Best regards
Jessica.
Glad to hear that, Jessica! This recipe came to me via Nigella Lawson (in her Italian book, Nigellissima), and she originally sourced it from Manuela Darling-Gansser (a Swiss born food writer now living in Australia). I also have Manuela’s book, Winter in the Alps, and her recipe is just as good as Nigella’s. Both books are fabulous cookbooks!