The Pioneer Woman Tasty Kitchen
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Bacon & Butternut Skillet Mac

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Level: Easy

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Description

This mac ‘n’ cheese is perfectly creamy with a smoky bacon flavor, yet the slight sweetness from the roasted squash still manages to shine through. One of my favorite parts is that it doesn’t bake in the oven forever — just broiler kissed on top.

Ingredients

  • 10 ounces, weight Elbow Pasta Or Any Other Small Pasta
  • 6 whole Slices Of Uncooked Bacon
  • ¼ cups Flour
  • 1-½ cup Whole Or 2% Milk
  • ¾ cups Smashed, Cooked Butternut Squash (roasting Recommended)
  • 2 teaspoons Smoked Paprika
  • 2 teaspoons Lemon Pepper
  • 2 teaspoons Kosher Salt
  • 1 cup Plain Yogurt Or Sour Cream
  • 2 cups Shredded Cheese (I Used A Cheddar-Monterey Jack Blend)
  • 1 cup Chopped Fresh Spinach
  • 3 whole Green Onions, Sliced Thinly

Preparation

Bring a large salted pot of water to boil. Add pasta and cook for a couple minutes short of the package directions. Reserve about 2 cups of pasta water.

Meanwhile, cut bacon into bits and cook in a large oven-safe skillet over medium heat until crisp. Remove bits with a slotted spoon and set aside. At this point, you can either leave all of the bacon drippings in the pan, remove some, or replace it entirely with about as much cooking oil. It’s up to you. I left all of the bacony goodness in the pan. If you replace it with cooking oil, make it nice and hot before moving on to the next step.

Turn on the broiler and move a rack to the upper third of your oven.

Add flour to the bacon-grease skillet and stir until it forms a loose paste. Let it cook at medium heat for about a minute or until it gets bubbly. Add milk, smashed squash, smoked paprika, lemon pepper, and salt to the skillet. Cook, stirring, until mostly smooth. Continue to cook, about 5 minutes or so, until the sauce begins to thicken and bubble.

Reduce heat to medium-low and add yogurt and shredded cheese. Stir until the cheese is melted and mixture is smooth.

Remove from heat. Add chopped spinach, cooked pasta, and enough pasta water to create the thickness you prefer. Keep in mind that the mixture with continue to thicken later as it cools.

Sprinkle reserved bacon bits and green onions over top. Place in the oven and broil for about 5-7 minutes until top begins to bubble and turn golden.

Serve with hot sauce. Makes about 6 good-sized servings.

3 Comments

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hesken on 5.24.2010

Excellent recipe!!! Not sure this should be allowed to happen to butternut squash (bacon, sour cream cheese) but it is delicious.

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urbanfarmchick on 2.17.2010

Fantastic! Everyone loved it! Didn’t have the green onion so substituted red instead, also didn’t have smoked paprika but with regular still yummy. (I made a boo-boo as well when rating; I meant to give it 5 mitts but I clicked on the mitts and boom – it rated it as four. I didn’t realize it would rate like that from this screen. I’m sorry! That’s what I get for being new!) But definitely FIVE MITTS!

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carynk5 on 2.11.2010

I made this tonight for my family and it was a huge hit!!! 6 out of 7 of us loved it!!! My child that “didn’t like it” had a friend over doesn’t like spinach so they picked that out and then they liked it! Thanks for the recipe – it is a keeper!

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