BLUE CHEESE, PEAR, AND PECAN MAC AND CHEESE

There’s a lot more to blue cheese than buffalo wing dipping sauce. So what if it smells like old gym shoes? Use blue cheese for your mac and cheese and it’ll taste posh. This is a riff on the classic Italian combo of gorgonzola, walnuts, pears, pancetta, and pasta. That’s a good thing, but not the only thing. Try it my way.

 

12 ounces rotini pasta (Any pasta will work.)

Olive oil

1 shallot, diced

5 ounces Lightlife Organic Fakin’ Bacon Tempeh Strips (so will any vegetarian bacon), diced

3 pears, peeled, cored, and cut into slices (Use firm pears here, you don’t want mush.)

1 head radicchio, sliced

6 ounces blue cheese, crumbled

1½ cups reserved cooking water (or sub in milk for a creamier sauce)

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper if you have it. If not the regular kind is fine, too

4 ounces pecan halves, toasted in the oven at 350°F for 10 minutes

1. Fill a pot with salty water and bring it to a boil. Add the pasta and slightly undercook (2 minutes less than the box instructions). Reserve 2 cups of the cooking water. Drain the pasta and leave it in the colander.

2. Using the same pot (you don’t have to use every pot in the house), coat the bottom with a little olive oil and place over medium heat. Add the shallot and a pinch of salt and sauté for 3 minutes. Add the veggie bacon and cook for 5 minutes more, stirring frequently.

3. Add the pears and radicchio and season with a little salt and pepper. Stir and cook for 3 minutes.

4. Add the blue cheese and ½ cup of the reserved cooking water. Lower the heat, and stir until it melts down into a sauce that coats the back of the spoon. If you have to add more water here, do it; that’s why we reserved 2 cups.

5. Add the undercooked pasta, and finish cooking it in the sauce. Taste and season with salt and lots of pepper.

6. Serve topped with the toasted pecans.