Tomato Macaroni and Cheese

Tomato Macaroni and Cheese

Disclosure: I’m working with Ovation TV to promote Southern Uncovered. All thoughts and opinions my own. 

Macaroni and Cheese is a classic Southern side dish that most of us consider comfort food and the perfect side dish for most holiday meals.

But as we all know, Southern Mac & Cheese is delicious because of the butter and cheese, which makes it more of a guilty pleasure than something to make, or eat, often.

The Mac & Cheese I grew-up with was actually quite different....

The macaroni and cheese of my childhood is made with a tomato base; which makes it healthy, flavorful and quite easy to make...

Ingredients to prepare Tomato Macaroni and Cheese include:

• 1 16 oz Elbow Macaroni Package - Cooked al dente with salt water
• 4 Medium-sized Tomatoes cut in half
• 1 Medium-sized Chopped Tomato
• 1/4 cup Chopped White Onion
• 1 Garlic Clove
• 4 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter
• 6 oz Tomato Paste
• 16 oz Sour Cream
• 1/2 cup Shredded Swiss and Gruyere Cheese Mix
• Ground Pepper and Salt to taste
• 
  

Preparation:

1. Blend (in a blender) four tomatoes, tomato paste and garlic clove until a smooth "sauce" consistency. Set aside.
2. Melt 4 tablespoons butter in a stockpot with low heat.
3. Add the onion to the stockpot and cook until the onion is transparent.
4. Add the tomato sauce to the onion and cook with medium heat until the sauce boils. (Make sure to mix while cooking to prevent the sauce from sticking to the pan)
5. Reduce the temperature once the sauce boils, then add the chopped tomato and sour cream. 
6. Mix slowly until the sauce begins to bubble. 
7. Add pepper and salt to taste.
8. Remove the sauce from the stove and add the cooked macaroni. Mix the pasta with the sauce until all the pasta is covered.
9. Fold-in the cheese mixture and serve immediately. 
10. Refrigerate any leftover Mac & Cheese and reheat with just a bit of lowfat milk in a pan.

Please let me know if you try my family Tomato Macaroni and Cheese recipe. Hopefully you will enjoy it as much as I do! 

I also invite you to watch Southern Uncovered on Ovation TV starring The Lee Bros to get a few other ideas on how to add a Southern touch to your favorite dishes.

Ana Lydia

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Southern Uncovered

Southern Uncovered

My views of the South were limited at best (no pun intended) when I was younger.

But when a cousin married a woman from Alabama, right around the time that I began to work with a proud Southern man, my views about the South were quickly replaced with my lunches and family gatherings boasting with Southern mainstays.

Gritts, thick smoked bacon, greens, and well, things that you only saw on TV but weren't readily available in my suburban community, were different. flavorful. delectable.

Even today, southern or "soul food" restaurants are few and far in Los Angeles; and none, from what I have been told, compare to the home-cooking and nouveau-fusion upscale Southern cuisine that is emerging in the most misunderstood parts of the U.S.

The Lee Brothers, the James Beard Award-winning food and travel writers, have embarked on a Southern road trip starting with their hometown of Charleston, South Carolina, to do just that: document the food, culture and history of the South.

Their new show "Southern Uncovered with the Lee Bros," is premiering on Ovation TV this Sunday, June 14; and Matt Lee, one half of the Lee Bros, shared his excitement at the recent kick-off reception at the award-winning restaurant Border Grill.

Proudly Southern, Matt told me that "Southern Uncovered with the Lee Bros" would not only honor the long-standing Southern food traditions, but respect the people of these communities, at least; at most, entice me and other viewers of the show to visit the South.

Because, truly, "the South is beautiful," he told me.

I can't wait to find that out.

Ana Lydia

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