Elevate Boxed Mac And Cheese With A Carbonara Treatment

Considering that an unopened box of mac and cheese can last for at least a year, it's a good idea to keep a few around for when you're craving easy comfort food. As delicious as this creamy meal is, it can get a little old eating it plain over and over. Luckily, there are plenty of ingredients you can toss in your pot to jazz it up. We're partial to butter for a richer dish and spinach and artichoke dip for some additional creaminess. On nights when you want to upgrade your meal even more, say by giving it the carbonara treatment, you can accomplish this with a few key ingredients.

Classic carbonara recipes include pancetta (or guanciale, which works as a substitute) and raw eggs, which create that silky sauce at the end. But ultimately, this is mac and cheese we're making, even if it's inspired by the Italian classic. So take the fanciness down a notch and use bacon as your meat, eggs, and peas for a little green factor. The latter aren't a part of traditional recipes, but they're often included in American versions. They're also an easy way to get some veggies in.

Before you get started on the noodles and cheese sauce, make your bacon. Just like classic carbonara recipes do with guanciale, you'll chop up your raw bacon and pan fry it until it gets crispy. Feel free to add garlic here if you like. Boil the noodles from the box like you normally would; and if you want to warm up your peas ahead of time, you can toss them in the pot a little before the pasta is done. Allow up to four minutes for fresh peas or about three minutes for frozen, and drain everything together.

Traditional carbonara whisks raw eggs with Parmigiano Reggiano, which then gets stirred into the pasta. In this case, you'll use the powdered cheese from the box. Use two eggs and some black pepper as well. To make the sauce, all you need to do is toss this egg mixture with your noodles and peas before adding the bacon, and use some reserved pasta water if you need to thin everything out a little. This dish tastes great finished off with a little grated Parmigiano Reggiano if you have it on hand.