16 oz lump crab meat
12 oz evaporated milk PLUS enough milk to equal 2 cups
2 cups shredded asiago
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
salt
freshly ground black pepper
panko
minced Italian parsley
1 lb small or medium sized pasta, cooked (I used cavatappi aka cellentani)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. In a medium pan, melt the butter. Add the flour and spices and stir until smooth. Add the milk, mustard and evaporated milk and whisk together until slightly thickened. Whisk in the asagio until smooth. Stir in the crab meat. Pour over the drained pasta. Pour into a lightly oiled baking dish with a lid. Top with a sprinkle of panko and parsley. Bake covered about 15 minutes, then uncover and cook until hot and bubbly, about 10-15 additional minutes.
Yield: 4-6 meal sized servings or about 8 side dish sized servings.
My thoughts:
When the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board approached me about developing a recipe using a Wisconsin cheese to share on their new Macaroni & Cheese Blog, I couldn’t say no. It had been entirely too long since I made mac & cheese. I decided to use fresh asagio because it has long been a favorite. While I’ve had lobster macaroni and cheese before, I’ve never had crab. Being a Baltimore girl, this just seemed wrong. I had to make a crab macaroni and cheese and asagio seemed like the perfect cheese to pair it with, mild enough that it wouldn’t overpower the crab but distinctly flavored and most importantly, it melts well. Adding smoked paprika and mustard gave it some bite and blended seamlessly into the simple cheese sauce. It ended up being a very easy but elegant macaroni and cheese. Fancy enough for company but quick enough for a weeknight.
Sounds yummy – can you recommend an alternate cheese to make it with? (don't tell the Milk Marketing folks, but we hate asiago – it tastes like feet smell!)
I would never have thought to put crab with mac n cheese.
Anne-
How vivid! Have you tried a younger Asiago? They are not so "ripe" tasting. Barring that, cheddar would be fine, just nothing that would totally overpower the crab.
Yum! I love crab, but never have put it in mac and cheese. This makes me hungry!
Gruyere would be fab too. I just made a Cauliflower Gratin using it, and it was yumm!! This looks wonderful!
What's the blog link? This looks yummy! Maybe a sneaky way to get kids to eat seafood???
I love it when mac and cheese goes gourmet! Yum…crab must be be SUCH a great addition!
I found the link to the blog and this recipe in particular:
30days30waysmacandcheese.com/
This sounds great. Had a crab boil last night with friends and a perfect way to use the leftover crab. I made Mac&Cheese last week after a winter craving for it for weeks.
I am drooling over this!! It looks absolutely incredible and i want to make it / eat it ASAP!!!!!!
That looks so awesome. I love crab in mac and cheese.
This looks so great ~ we love asiago and crab, so this will be perfect for us!