When seafood and comfort food meet...

Knowing that it was my turn to bring an entree to my Tuesday night City Group this week (we have a potluck dinner every week and rotate which part of the meal each person is responsible for), over the weekend, I started contemplating what I might want to bring. Being a vegetarian (okay, for this post I suppose I should clarify that I'm actually a pescatarian...), it's always a challenge to come up with a main dish that will appeal to a group. Some of my all-time favorite dishes to make include spinach manicotti, eggplant parmesan, and veggie lasagna...and they elicit rave reviews from certain crowds, but when some of my friends hear the word "spinach" or "eggplant" or they see colorful veggies in any dish, they quickly steer clear. Then, there's also the issue of needing to make something that can be prepped the night before so I can just pop it in the oven as soon as I get home from work.

Having recently found a recipe for Crab Mac 'N Cheese that I'd been wanting to try, I decided to give it a shot. I mean, mac 'n cheese is always a crowd pleaser, and this recipe steps it up a notch by incorporating crab meat and fontina cheese. As usual, I rarely follow recipes step by step, since culinary creativity is my favorite part of cooking, so the recipe at the above link served as the base idea to start from, but my tweaks/additions are included in the recipe below....bon appétit! :)

Baked Crab Mac 'N Cheese

Ingredients:

·       1 pound cavatappi pasta, plus 1/2 cup macaroni

·       3 Tbsp. Promise spread (or other lower fat butter/margarine)

·       2 cups fat-free half & half mixed with 2/3 cup light cream

·       1/4 cup all-purpose flour

·       1 tsp. kosher salt

·       1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

·       1/2 tsp. ground mustard

·       1 Tbsp. Old Bay

·       1/2 tsp. garlic powder

·    1/4 tsp. white pepper

·    1/4 tsp. thyme
·       1/2 tsp. parsley

·       1/2 tsp. kosher salt

·       1 1/2 cups medium cheddar, shredded

·       1 block of fontina (1 1/2 cups shredded)

·    1/4 cup gruyere cheese

·       2 (6 oz) cans crab meat, drained & flaked

·      1 cup Italian breadcrumbs

·      1 Tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese

·   1/2 tsp. paprika

Shred/grate the fontina cheese.

Preheat oven to 375. Set a large pot of salted water on to boil. Cook pasta for about 6 minutes or until al dente. Drain and rinse, set aside.

While pasta is cooking, melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in the flour and cook for 1 minute. Slowly whisk in the milk and cream until the mixture is smooth. Continue to cook and stir until the sauce has thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon.

Remove from heat and stir in cayenne, mustard, Old Bay, garlic powder, white pepper, thyme, parsley, and salt.

Stir in cheese until it has all melted, then stir in crab meat.

In a large bowl, stir pasta and the cheese sauce/crab mixture together, mixing well.

Spray the bottom and sides of a 9 x 13 casserole dish with non-stick cooking spray. Pour the mac-n-cheese into the dish. (If making ahead, stop here and refrigerate overnight).

Mix breadcrumbs and parmesan together and sprinkle on top. Sprinkle with paprika, then spray all over with butter flavored cooking spray for a final touch.

Bake for 30-40 minutes or until top is browned and mac-n-cheese is bubbly.

Serve and enjoy!!