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Pimento Macaroni & Cheese

pimento macaroni and cheese is the perfect comfort food you need on a cold winter’s night.

 

 

This recipe should really be called “Catherine’s Mac-n-Cheese” — because my sweet neighbor shared this one with me. It is so good — rarely do I have leftovers, and if I do, I have people asking for those leftovers. And as far as mac-n-cheese recipes go, this one is super simple to make. Besides boiling your pasta, everything is combined in a large bowl, then dumped into the casserole dish. This recipe can even be frozen and reheated!! {{Making it the perfect “take them a meal” meal.}}

 

 

You’ll cook one 16 ounce box of pasta to al dente. You can use the elbow macaroni for tradition, or you can use cavatappi, which I think holds the sauce better. The grooves on the curly pasta allow for more cheese to pasta ratio, and it’s all about the ratio! 😉

 

 

You’ll need items from a typical (southern) pantry.. Pimentos, cream of mushroom soup, pasta, Ritz crackers. From the fridge you’ll need Duke’s, LOTS of cheddar, and butter. 

Shred your cheese — either by hand (working those calories off before you consume them!), or with a food processor. This is one of the only things I use my food processor for — to shred cheese and vegetables! A couple pounds of cheese is shredded in just a few minutes! Shredding your cheese, instead of buying pre-shredded, melts better… And, you don’t end up with the stabilizers inside the pre-shredded stuff. Bleck! ? ? ?

 

While your pasta cooks, in a large bowl mix together your mayo, mushroom soup, pimentos, cheese, some salt & LOTS of pepper. Sometimes, I’ll sprinkle in some garlic powder or onion powder… This will essentially be pimento cheese… YUM!

 

Once your pasta is cooked, scoop it out (instead of draining!) into your bowl. You want some of the starchy pasta water to help break up the cheese and make a sauce. This will also help everything stick together once in the casserole dish. Pro Tip: if you find your casserole isn’t coming together, and you want it slightly more creamy, add a scoop of the pasta water.

 

Melt some butter and combine with cracked crackers — you want big chunks, not pulverized Ritz crackers like a recipe usually calls for. I just push the sleeve together, and gently break before opening the package and dumping into the melted butter. 

 

Here’s a printable recipe for you! 

Print
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Pimento Macaroni & Cheese

  • Author: Ashley Elizabeth
  • Prep Time: 20
  • Cook Time: 40
  • Total Time: 60

Description

A simple, southern casserole sure to satisfy anyone!


Ingredients

Scale
  • one pound of macaroni pasta
  • one pound of cheddar cheese, shredded
  • one can cream of mushroom soup
  • one jar pimentos, drained
  • one cup Duke’s mayonnaise
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 sleeve Ritz crackers, gently broken
  • 1/2 stick butter, melted


Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350˚.
  2. Cook pasta according to package.
  3. In a large mixing bowl, combine cheese, soup, mayo, pimentos, salt & pepper. Once pasta is cooked, SCOOP from the hot pasta water, into large mixing bowl. Combine, and dump into buttered 9×13 casserole dish. Top with ritz crackers that have been tossed in butter. Cover and bake for 20 minutes, then uncover for last 20 minutes.

Notes

  • Freezes great!

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 12
Recipe Card powered byTasty Recipes

 Does your family have a tried and true macaroni recipe?? Let me know in the comments below!

 

Be sure to save this recipe to your favorite casserole board on Pinterest!

pimento macaroni and cheese casserole

 

XOXO,

sweetpea lifestyle

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