A while back a dear friend of my mom, Gerald Warren passed away. At his memorial service I met his daughter, Christina and her husband, Lars... both beautiful people. Lars is from Switzerland and he and Christina now live there. He made a comment to the effect all people in Mississippi are cousins so in less than 24 hours I was calling them "Cousin Lars and Cousin Christina".
Anyway not more than a couple weeks ago I was watching Travel Channel on TV and they were showing Switzerland featuring a restaurant called The Crazy Cow and their signature dish. I'm 99.9% sure I'm spelling this incorrectly but... Alpermagronen? Basically Swiss mac & cheese served w/ applesauce. The main thing that caught my eye was bacon! Everything is better with bacon, right?
I grew up on mac & cheese from the box with that powdered semi cheese like tasting mystery dust. Hell, I thought it tasted pretty damn good. But after watching so many people make mac & cheese using real cheese I decided to give it a try Swiss style-ish.
Everybody who makes mac & cheese seems to have their own spin so here's my first attempt at homemade:
6 rashers of thick sliced bacon
1 large potato sliced thin on a mandolin or w/ a sharp knife
1 large onion sliced as per the spud
1 pound of pasta
1 Tbsp butter
1 cup grated cheese (I used 3/4 Swiss and 1/4 Cheddar for color)
1/2 cup whole milk
Fry the bacon until just getting crisp, remove & drain
Add butter to bacon grease and fry your onion until golden, remove and drain onion
Boil pasta & spuds until al dente in salted water & drain
Heat oven to 375 F
Grease casserole dish w/ bacon fat/butter
Layer 1/3 pasta & spuds, 1/3 cheese and 1 rasher of crumbled bacon
Continue until all the pasta & spuds and cheese are used up
Warm milk, add a dash of salt and pepper, any little spices you like (I added a touch of garlic)
Pour the milk over the top fairly evenly so it seeps into all the nooks and crannies
Crumble the remaining bacon into the onions and sprinkle them over the top.
Bake covered for 10-15 minutes
The hardest part was waiting until it cooled before shoving this into my grocery hole.
It is wicked good!
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