Mac & Cheese Magic

Florentine Mac and Cheese and Roast Chicken Sausage Meatballs
from Rachael Ray
1 lb cavatappi (hollow, corkscrew-shaped pasta)
1 1/2 lb ground chicken
2 to 3 fresh rosemary sprigs, stripped and finely chopped
2 tsp fennel seeds
3 garlic cloves, grated
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
1 egg
1/2 to 3/4 cup bread crumbs
3 Tbsp olive oil
3 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup whole milk
1/8 tsp grated nutmeg
2 (10 oz) boxes of chopped frozen spinach, defrosted

1. Preheat the oven to 450F.
2. Place a large pot of water on to boil. When it comes to a boil, salt it, add the pasta, and cook al dente.
3. While the water is coming to a boil, in a large mixing bowl combine the chicken, salt and pepper, rosemary, fennel seeds, garlic, red pepper flakes, ricotta cheese, 1/2 cup Parmigiano, the egg, and the bread crumbs. If the mixture is too wet, add another handful of bread crumbs. Form 8 large balls, 3 to 4 inches in diameter. Coat the balls in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and lightly grease a rimmed baked sheet with another tablespoon of the olive oil. Arrange the balls on the sheet and roast for 17 to 18 minutes, or until the juices run clear.
4. While the meatballs roast, melt the butter in a medium saucepot over medium heat. Whisk in the flour, cook for 1 minute, then whisk in the stock and milk. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg and cook for 5 to 6 minutes to thicken. Stir in the remaining cup of grated Parmigiano and reduce the heat to the lowest setting.
5. Add the spinach to the white sauce, separating the clumps as you go. Mix thoroughly.
6. Drain the pasta and place in a large bowl. Pour the spinach sauce over the pasta and toss to combine. Adjust the seasonings.
7. Serve the Florentine Mac and Cheese topped with 2 meatballs per serving.

If you know our family very well than you probably know about our love of macaroni and cheese. My husband pretty much tried to live off the stuff in college and has made quite the effort to kept it in our diet on a regular basis. What can I say? He's a man who likes simple things. Therefore I was pretty excited to find a healthier version.

The ingredients:

All the ingredients for the meatballs. I've never put ricotta cheese in meatballs before but it goes well. It makes the meatballs super sticky but the olive oil seems to help with that.

These meatballs are ginormous!!

Even after they are cooked, they are large, large, large. They kind of look like really puffy scones or biscuits.

I once again steamed fresh spinach instead of defrosting frozen (like I did with the Turkey Meatball Hoagies).

This is the same sauce base as the sauce for the Hoagies but it calls for a ton of spinach. I had to steam the spinach in two batches and the sauce looked like it should have enough after only half. If you like spinach though, this is the sauce for you.

I couldn't find cavatappi so I used gemelli instead. It worked well and even had the hollow corkscrew shape!

Lots of pasta and lots of sauce.

The final product: Mmm... mac and cheese. We enjoyed this quite a bit. It is creamy and wonderful with a subtle cheesy flare. My husband felt the sauce was little heavy on the spinach. While I liked it the way it was, I think you could probably cut a quarter to even half of the spinach out of the sauce and not miss in the final product. The chicken sausage are really quite extraordinary. I think what makes the meatballs special is the ricotta cheese; it makes them really moist and oh so yummy. The two meatballs per serving recommended in the recipe would definitely be a bit much (even with just one you still get a quarter pound of meat!) although I don't think I would cut down the size of the meatballs as the size adds a novelty to the meal. This will definitely be added to our "regulars".