This post is produced in partnership with Derlea Foods .
Many long-time readers will know that I’ve been cooking and baking for most of my life and that my inspiration was my mum. Mum was always baking or cooking something when I was growing up and I spent a lot of my time in the kitchen with her. Unfortunately, she passed away unexpectedly last year and since then I’ve been teaching my dad aged 81, to cook. He spent 60 years with my mum, in his words “eating five-star food”. This is not an exaggeration – my mum was excellent at both cooking and baking, and produced stunning meals that looked as good as they tasted, most days of the week.
With my dad we’re starting from pretty much scratch, teaching him the basics – knife skills, and a repertoire of recipes that he feels comfortable and confident making. Part of teaching him how to cook has also been teaching him how to shop and teaching him some store-bought shortcuts that really help save time in the kitchen.
I’ve been teaching people to cook, kids and adults, for over a decade now and people sometimes get hung up about how everything should be made from scratch. Like, every component of every recipe should be from scratch otherwise it’s not worth doing. My dad was also one of these people, and honestly, it can be quite limiting if you feel like you have to do every single part of a recipe from scratch. Recently, I introduced him to products like minced garlic and ginger, and it was quite eye-opening for him. I help him shop via the supermarket app where he shops in Australia, where he lives, and we found some equivalents to some of my favourite store-bought shortcuts. This has been really great for him as it might be the difference between him, cooking for himself one night, or ordering takeout or having a frozen meal. There’s nothing wrong with that every now and then but I wouldn’t want him (or anyone) to feel limited just because he doesn’t feel like mincing garlic or chopping onions.
I was super excited to receive this package from Derlea Foods last week, which included my favourite minced garlic, but also these new products, Diced Onions and Caramelized Onions. Who doesn’t want ready-to-go caramelized onions on hand?
I had a couple of ideas I wanted to try immediately with the Caramelized Onions – Onion Soup, a Grilled Cheese with Caramelized Onions to name just two – but then my eyes spotted bacon in my fridge and my thoughts went to an elevated Mac and Cheese using both bacon and caramelized onions. Perfect for the huge snowstorm we had last weekend here in Toronto!
Today’s recipe is a riff on my popular Gratin de Pâtes au Jambon (Baked Mac and Cheese) from In the French kitchen with kids that was a hit during my online classes in 2020 and 2021. Ironically, we’re making the cheese sauce from scratch here because honestly it doesn’t take much longer than the boxed version and uses simple staples (milk, butter, flour, cheese). Once you’ve made a béchamel sauce (the base for the cheese sauce) once, you won’t be intimidated again!
The recipe has a few different components – cooked pasta and cooked bacon so the mise en place is important – once you start making the sauce, everything happens very fast after that so make sure you get everything organised before you start cooking.
Mac and cheese with caramelized onions and bacon
Elevate your mac and cheese with caramelized onions and bacon!
Ingredients
- 5 rashers bacon (approx. 200g), chopped into small cubes
For the pasta
- 2 cups (150 g) dry short pasta (like penne)
For the sauce
- 2 tablespoons (28g) unsalted butter
- 3 tablespoons (28 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 1/4 cups (315 mL) milk
- 1 cup (60 g) grated cheese
- flaky sea salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 cup Derlea Caramelized Onions, divided
for the gratin:
- 2 tablespoons Panko breadcrumbs
to serve:
- fresh curly parsley, chopped
Instructions
Prepare the bacon:
- Cook the bacon until it’s as crispy as you like.
- Drain the pieces on paper towel and set aside.
Prepare the pasta:
- Cook the pasta according to the directions on the package.
- Drain and set aside in a large bowl.
Make the béchamel:
- Set the broiler to high (400˚F/200˚C)and place an oven rack in the middle position.
- Melt the butter in a medium pot over medium-high heat.
- Decrease heat to medium and add the flour. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. It will look like a paste.
- Meanwhile, in a small pot over medium-low heat, bring the milk to a simmer, without letting it boil. You can also do this in the microwave in a microwave-safe bowl in 30-second increments until it reaches temperature.
- Gradually add the warm milk to the flour. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes over medium-high heat, until the mixture thickens slightly, whisking constantly. Remove from the heat.
- Add the grated cheese and the salt and pepper to the sauce and mix until combined.
- Add about half of the Derlea Caramelized Onions to the sauce and mix well.
- Add the pasta to the sauce and mix until all the pasta is coated.
- Mix in the bacon.
Assemble the gratin:
- Spoon half the pasta into a large baking dish (roughly 8 x 12 inches/20 x 30 cm) and top with the remaining Derlea Caramelized Onions.
- Spoon the remaining pasta into the dishand top with the breadcrumbs.
- Broil for 5 to 7 minutes, or until the breadcrumbs are golden.
Serve warm with a green salad.
Recommended Products
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Want to see how it’s done?
Check out my “how to” reel for this recipe on Instagram!
The onions and bacon really elevate this dish to something that’s totally “guestable” – good enough to serve to guests – but easy enough to pull together on a weeknight. Best kind of dishes, right? NOT having to caramelize the onions is a big part in this – the Derlea product makes this so much more achievable, especially on a weeknight!
We enjoyed this with a simple green salad and the recipe is enough for two hearty portions or 4 sides. It re-heats beautifully and the flavour is even more developed the next day – perfect for lunch leftovers!
I’m excited to use the Caramelized Onions again soon and love that they make it easy to contemplate a bit more of a fancy dish with less notice, even after a busy workday! Thanks, Derlea Foods!
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Disclosure: Derlea Foods provided me with product and compensation in exchange for recipe development and content creation. They did not review the post before publication and all opinions are my own.
This post also contains affiliate links. I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites, meaning if you click over and purchase something, I will receive a very small percentage of the purchase price (at no extra cost to you). Thank you in advance!
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Elevated mac and cheese, indeed! 🙂
It’s SO good!
It does look delish…
I take it that ‘broiling’ is grilling down under?
That’s exactly right!