Macaroni, Bacon, Sweet Potato

Fully-Loaded Sweet Potato Mac & Cheese

Fully Loaded Sweet Potato Mac and Cheese
A recipe by Sarah Cooks

Ingredients
250-300 grams sweet potatoes
200 grams macaroni pasta
Extra virgin olive oil
4 rashers streaky bacon, finely chopped
2-3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 tablespoons plain flour
500 millilitres full-fat milk
200 grams sliced button mushrooms
1 teaspoon mild English mustard
1/4 teaspoon paprika (plus extra for sprinkling)
60 grams baby spinach leaves
75 grams feta (plus a little extra for sprinkling)
75 grams grated tasty cheese (plus a little extra for sprinkling)
4 sage leaves

Method
Preheat the oven to 200C.
Wash the sweet potatoes. Rub the sweet potatoes with a little olive oil, then wrap each one in foil. Roast for 30 minutes - 1 hour, or until soft when tested with a skewer. Remove to a bowl, and mash roughly, skin and all. (Roasting the sweet potatoes can be done in advance).
Put a large pot of water on to boil. Salt generously then add the macaroni. Once it's come back to a boil, cook for one minute less than the packet instructions suggest. Save a cup of the starchy cooking water with a mug, then drain the pasta and set aside.
Heat a teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add the bacon pieces, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the pieces are crisp and the fat is rendered. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the pieces to a small plate and set aside.
Pour the melted bacon fat into a 1/4 cup measure, and add enough butter to bring the total volume up to the quarter cup mark. (This is messy and can be a bit annoying, but this means that instead of discarding the bacon fat, you are using it as the base for your white sauce and therefore getting ALL THE FLAVOUR so it is totally worth it).
Pour the bacon fat and butter back into the saucepan and melt over a low heat. Add the flour and whisk to combine. Cook for a minute or two until bubbling and a little thickened. Remove from the heat, whisk in the milk, then return to the heat. Cook, whisking and stirring, until the sauce is thickened. (You don't have to whisk constantly, but just make sure you stir it often enough so that it doesn't catch and burn on the pan). Whisk in the mustard and paprika. Tip in the mushrooms, stir to combine, and cook for a further minute or so. Remove from the heat and season with salt and pepper.
Place the drained pasta back into the pot that you cooked it in. Add the sweet potato mash and stir gently to combine, pouring in some of the starchy cooking water if required to help it mush through. Add the bacon and crumble in the feta and stir to combine.
Tip the pasta into the pan with the mushroomy white sauce. Add the grated tasty cheese, and stir to disperse evenly.
Spoon a third of the mixture into a 25cm square baking dish, then add half the spinach leaves. Repeat with another third of the pasta mixture, then the remaining spinach leaves, and finish with the pasta mixture.
Sprinkle the top with a little paprika, and the extra feta and tasty cheese. Snip the sage leaves into fine strips and sprinkle over.
Bake for 20-30 minutes or until golden brown and piping hot.