Speckles n Spectrum

The clock strikes 12 and it's May. Yippee fiesta month and as promise I'm going to start getting serious on food blogging. Wish me luck. I would like to establish my background about food. I've been eating since I can remember... he he Seriously, main dish cooking background came from Papa and baking and desserts knowledge came from Mama. (more about that on my personal blog post)

So here's my own version of Campbell's Northern Style Lasagna converted into a baked mac for quantity purposes. This is a more budget friendly recipe and twisted to Filipinos taste buds but if you would want to have the original recipe feel free to message me.

Baked Mac n Spectrum

3 tbsp cooking oil
5 tbsp butter (optional)
1 clove chopped garlic
1 whole chopped red onion
2 pieces diced green bell pepper
750g Del Monte Tomato & Cheese Pasta Sauce
½ kg ground beef
10 pieces thinly sliced Purefoods Tender Juicy Hotdog (optional)
1 can Campbell's condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup
1/2 soup can milk
450g grated Eden cheese
200g grated Magnolia Quickmelt
2 packs of 500g Colavita Penne Rigate or 1 kg Del Monte elbow macaroni
salt and black ground pepper 


How to mess it up:

You can fill 2 of these containers using 1 kg Del Monte elbow macaroni

1. Cook noodles according to package instruction.
2. In a small bowl combine Mushroom Soup and milk.
3. In a heated pan pour cooking oil, add the onions when garlic is already golden brown. In low-medium heat cook the hotdogs while adding the butter. When hotdogs are all bright red and cooked add the ground beef. Cooked until meat is browned and is thoroughly cooked and no pink remains, stirring once during cooking to separate meat. Seasoned with black pepper and salt. Stir in spaghetti sauce, let it simmer then add the soup mixture in Step #2. 
4. Add all the Eden cheese to the sauce. Stir to make sure that it melts and well distributed within the mixture. Taste your sauce and then seasoned with salt if you think it needs a little more pinch of it.
5. Turn off the heat and add the green bell pepper, set aside at least ¼ for toppings.
6. Add the noodles into the sauce and pour it into a baking pan. Top it with the quickmelt and sprinkle the remaining green bell peppers. Make sure it is evenly distributed and more cheese added the better looking your baked mac will be.
7. Baked for at least 30 minutes at 375 F (190 C) or until the top cheese melted. 

* You can substitute hotdogs with mushrooms.
* This dish taste improves better even after 3 days stack in your fridge. Just reheat it in the microwave and add quickmelt on top if you prefer having every serving with food presentation and add your garlic bread then It's good to go.

2 packs of 500g Colavita Penne Rigate will make 2 servings of this.