This Spanish Style Roasted Pepper Mac ‘N’ Cheese is extremely flavorful and creamy. It’s chalked full of Spanish cheese and roasted Hungarian peppers. I can promise you that it will have you coming back for more.
Robby and I went on vacation last week and we had a lot of fun. On our first day of vacation, we headed to Santa Barbara and stayed in a cute Airbnb close to town. The highlight of Santa Barbara was eating at one of our favorite pizza places, Olio’s Pizzaria. The next morning, we headed to Oceanside for a mini family reunion with Robby’s uncle Jimmy, cousin Richard, cousin’s wife Liana and their two sons James and Andrew.
We stopped in Santa Monica on the way down to meet up with some friends for lunch at Lunetta, an unreal restaurant that our friend Rafael recently opened up. The food and atmosphere were utterly phenomenal!! I highly recommend it! After lunch, we headed to our Airbnb in Oceanside, which was right on the strand on the beach. We headed over to the cousin’s rental after we decompressed and we all contributed to making a Mexican feast. The week basically consisted of food, wine, beach and great conversation.
Robby and Richard have been digging through the history of their great-great-grandfather and great-grandfather. It’s a long and crazy story. Robby has a ton of old photos that they have been using to piece together their family’s history. They learned a lot more after showing the photos to Uncle Jimmy. Jimmy and Robby’s dad lived in Capitola (10 minutes from our house) when they were ages 5 and 8 and Robby’s dad talked about it often. Robby has some old 8mm videos from the ’60s of Robby’s dad showing the house and neighborhood where they lived in Capitola. It’s pretty cool that we ended up living so close to where they had once lived.
While in Oceanside, we all drove up to Fallbrook to see if we could find the gravesite where their great grandfather and grandmother were buried. Their great grandfather has no headstone so it took some digging to find it. (No pun intended) Robby and Richard are planning on buying a headstone for him. Their great-grandmother’s death certificate says that she is buried there but the cemetery has no record of it. It’s all a bit crazy and there is so much more to the story.
I was also lucky enough to meet up with my friend Dwyane. We kicked back outside of our rental chatting it up and sipping on some wine. On our way out of town, Dwyane wanted to meet up with us so he could give us one of his paintings. I can’t even tell you how stoked I am because it is beautiful! It’s a wave with a whole lot of color and I absolutely love it!
Our last night was spent in Templeton near Paso Robles in a sweet little cabin with vineyards and cute grass-fed happy cows that were running around outside our window. This was a much-needed vacation for both of us and now I feel refreshed and ready to be creative.
My preferred wines for this dish are a crisp white Rioja or a bubbly Cava.
Spanish Style Roasted Pepper Mac ‘N’ Cheese Recipe:
Ingredients
- 8 Roasted Hungarian Peppers or Anaheim Peppers – roasted – diced - reserve 2 for the top
- 2 Cups Manchego Cheese – finely shredded - 1 cup set aside.
- 2 Cups Iberico Cheese – finely shredded
- 1 Tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1 Cloves Garlic – minced
- 6 Tablespoons Butter
- 6 Tablespoons White Rice Flour
- 2 1/2 Cups Milk
- 2 1/2 Cups Half and Half
- 8 Oz. Macarpone Cheese
- 1 Tablespoon + 1 Teaspoon Sea Salt
- 1/4 Teaspoon Black Pepper
- 1/2 Teaspoon Hot Paprika
- 1 Pound Brown Rice Elbow Macaroni
- Garnish Cilantro
Instructions
Peppers
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Roast the peppers on the stovetop on medium-high heat.
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A gas stove works the best but it will work fine on an electric stove.
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Char the peppers on all sides turning with a pair of tongs.
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When good and charred, steam them for at least 10 minutes in a covered dish or a paper bag rolled shut to hold in the steam.
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Take a paper towel and rub off the char. It’s ok to leave a little of the char. Slice in half and remove the seeds and stems.
Pasta
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In a pot of boiling salted water, cook the macaroni for 4 minutes.
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You want it less than al dente because the pasta will continue to cook in the oven. Rinse, drain and put into a 3-quart ovenproof casserole dish. Set aside.
Sauce
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Add the olive oil and garlic to a large heavy saucepan, saute over medium-low heat, stirring until the garlic starts to brown.
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Next, add the butter, when melted whisk in the flour and cook while stirring for about 1 minute.
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Whisk in the milk a little at a time. It will clump up a bit at first, this is ok!
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Then add the half and half a little at a time while whisking constantly.
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When the milk/half and half is hot, slowly add the cheese a little at a time. Whisking continually.
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Whisk until the cheese is completely melted then whisk in the macarpone, roasted peppers, spices and salt.
Assemble
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees
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Pour the cheese sauce over the pasta and mix together.
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Sprinkle on the remaining manchego and reserved diced peppers.
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Place on the middle shelf for 35 – 40 minutes or until it is golden and bubbly.
Recipe Notes
You might think that there is too much sauce but it's perfect after it is baked.
