Now this is an “old” secret family recipe so if you aren’t family, look away now. Because we are the only ones in the world in on this recipe. If you keep looking, your life could be in danger! I’m warning you out of love! We are the only ones who make this. Well, us and everyone loving Velveeta cheese. So maybe its not all that secret.
Its my Seesters favorite ‘make it for my birthday’ meal. And today I made it for my Auntie’s birthday. My mother used to make it. Probably my grandmother too and I’m kinda old, so thats going way back, Poindexter.
Funnily enough, I never really made it. Not since the one time I tried and used sweetened condensed milk instead of evaporated milk and we all ate at taco bell that night. (you know, back in the days when you only did fast food for emergencies or occasional fun outings. I mean, once or twice a month, tops.)
This is comfort food. Soul satisfying, cheesy goodness and, in spite of the name, we don’t even bake it anymore. Mom used to, using either a crushed Ritz cracker topping or more cheese. She’d pop it into the oven and bake until bubbly. But as precious Seester pointed out, it can dry it out, if you aren’t careful. So she just scoops it out of the pot, no baking required. 1 less step, whee!
Theres not much to it.
- an onion, chopped and sautéed
- Italian sausage, mild.
- evaporated milk, one can (the bigger, 12 oz. I think.)
- Velveeta cheese
- rigatoni pasta.
Thats it. Okay, salt and pepper. Or just pepper because, lets face it, Velveeta is pretty salty. So is Italian sausage.
Heres the rundown:
- Dice up and sauté an onion in a skillet with a little oil of choice. I used olive. Since the Italian sausage I used was already cooked, I added it in towards the end to warm it up. The onions were already browned and translucent. If the sausage wasn’t cooked, I would have added it soon after starting the onions. Cook until the sausage isn’t pink.
- About the same time as the onions, start a pot of water for the rigatoni. I used a big pot because I made a whole pound of pasta.
- In a smaller saucepan, pour the can of evaporated milk. As it slowly heats, add about 1 pound of Velveeta, cut into cubes. (that’s half the big box). Eat some as you go, you know, to make sure its still good. Because you know how fast Velveeta can go bad, right? (hint, that was sarcasm. It lasts virtually forever. Or feels that way.)
- The water boils so you add the pasta and cook according to the bag or box. Mine was 13 min.
- keep an eye on the cheese while it melts, stirring frequently so it won’t stick to the pan. (Hahahahaha! Like it would ever NOT stick to the pan. See photo below.)
- Drain the pasta and put back in the pot. Add the wonderful gooey cheese sauce. Add the sausage/onion mixture. Stir, stir, stir. Then scoop up into bowls!
I had two kinds of Italian Sausage
Still adding more cheese
(I confess, I haven’t posted in about a year and a half and I’m having all sorts of fun figuring out the new formatting WordPress has in store for me. )
But if you are wondering how much sausage to use, the word “some” fits the bill. If you are making a smaller amount, use less milk/cheese/pasta/sausage. If you want to bake it, top it with crushed Ritz or shredded cheese, or both and pop it into an oven to bake until the top is crispy. (But not so long that it dries out. Is this helpful enough?). The amount of sauce I made perfectly covered 1 lb. of pasta.
We will be having leftovers for days. Or one day for sure. At least I think there’s still some in the fridge. Maybe I’d better check.
Enjoy y’all!
la petite kitchen 