I’ve cooked mac and cheese with sausage in so many ways I’ve lost count. How the sausage is cooked depends on the variety. Dried sausages are best sliced and cut into small pieces. With fresh sausage, I prefer to press the meat out of the casing and cook it like it was just ground meat that did not require seasoning.
After the pandemic broke and we were obliged to buy our groceries online, I discovered another way to cook sausage mac and cheese. Don’t buy sausage if you’re going to discard the casings anyway. Buy sausage meat instead. It’s less wasteful and, in some cases, less expensive.
Depending on the lean-to-fat ratio of your sausage meat, you may need to coat the pan with oil before spreading the sausage meat. Just let it cook, stirring occasionally until there’s only meat and rendered fat.
An optional step is to scoop out half of the sausage meat before stirring in the Mornay sauce and adding cooked pasta. Sprinkling the reserved sausage meat on top does make this rather plain-looking dish a lot more appetizing.
Garlicky sausage mac and cheese
Ingredients
- 375 grams garlicky sausage meat
- 1 ½ to 2 cups Mornay sauce
- salt to taste
- 3 cups cooked macaroni
- chopped parsley to garnish
- grated cheese (optional) to garnish
Instructions
- Heat a frying pan and spread the sausage meat until you hear sizzling. Stir and cook until fat has been rendered and the susage meat is nicely browned.
- Scoop out half of the sausage meat and set aside.
- With the heat set to medium, stir the Mornay sauce into the remaining sausage meat in the pan.
- Taste the sauce and add salt, if needed.
- Stir in the macaroni and cook until bubbly.
- To serve, top with the reserved sausage meat, parsley and, optionally, grated cheese.
