Day 71

If there’s one thing we relish here at the habitat, it’s bright orange food. So we were excited when our heroes at the Bon Appetit Test Kitchen put out a video of various ways to enhance Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. The first version we tried is the one put forth by Molly Baz. It went into the weekly rotation as soon as we tried it.

Molly Mac

Ingredients

• 1 box Kraft Macaroni and Cheese

• 1/4 cup garlic-flavored panko bread crumbs

• 1 tbsp olive oil

• A few sprigs parsley

• Fresh-ground black pepper

• 1/2 cup frozen peas

• 6 cups water

• 3 to 4 tbsp butter

• Parmesan, asiago or other hard cheese to grate as garnish (optional)

Directions

• Put two bowls or two plates in a 200 degree oven to get warm.

• Heat olive oil in a small saute pan. Toast bread crumbs in olive oil with a generous sprinkling of black pepper. When toasted, use kitchen shears to cut the parsley sprigs into small pieces, directly into the pan. Mix well.

• Bring water to a boil. When boiling, add pasta and cook for 7 minutes. About halfway through cooking time, add frozen peas directly to pasta water. Before draining, reserve 1 cup of the pasta water. Drain/strain pasta and peas.

• In the just-emptied pot, melt butter over medium-low heat. Add a few tablespoons of the pasta water and the Kraft cheese powder. Stir until uniform. Add another generous sprinkling of black pepper. Add pasta and peas, along with as much of the reserved pasta water as desired for your preferred level of creaminess.

• Divide pasta between the two warm plates or bowls. Top with toasted bread crumbs. Grate some additional parmesan or asiago cheese on top, if desired.

Serves 2. Unless it serves 1, in which case no judgement.