Neopolitan Macaroni & Cheese

Comfort Me Oh Mac and Cheese!

Lidia Bastianich made this recipe recently on Lidia's Italy. It looked amazing and pretty easy, so I looked it up on her website and unfortunately it wasn't posted. This always seems to happen whenever I really want one of her recipes. Luckily, I had it on my DVR and was able to replay it about 300 times in order to get all the details right. I changed it just a bit and some of the amounts may be off by a little, but it turned out great just the same!

I highly recommend making this version of mac 'n cheese. It certainly is not the traditional American style we are all used to, but I think you will be blown away by the flavor!

Neopolitan Macaroni & Cheese
Adapted from Lidia Bastianich

2 cups DeCecco tubetti, or any small tubular pasta (She used ditallini)
1 medium/large shallot, chopped in a large dice (She used onion)
2 slices bacon, chopped in a large dice
1 potato, diced in small cubes (She used more)
1 cup cup provolone cheese, diced (She used more)
1 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese
1/2 - 1 cup fresh tomato, chopped
Approx. 5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt
Sea salt

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add a handful of kosher salt. Reduce heat and keep on water simmering.
Add 2-3 tablespoons olive oil to a large saute pan over medium heat. Add in shallot and sea salt; cook for about 1-2 minutes. Move shallot over to the side of the pan and add bacon to the open "hot spot"(as Lidia calls it), in the pan. Cook for about 3 minutes and then mix the shallot and bacon together. Add diced potato and cook for about 3-4 minutes.

Add about 4-5 ladles of boiling water to the potato bacon mixture and stir. Add additional salt at this time. As the mixture simmers, add the pasta to the boiling water and cook until al dente. Add the pasta to the potato mixture and stir to combine.

Turn off the heat and add about 2 tablespoons of olive oil, grated cheese, tomatoes, and diced provolone. Stir to combine. Serve immediately.

Note: Lidia suggests the dish to be served immediately, but I found a way around this. If you want to prepare this dish ahead of time, follow the recipe up to the point of adding the pasta to the potato mixture. Let it cool and refrigerate. When ready to serve, re-heat over low/medium heat and add in additional water if dry. Once heated through, add in the remaining ingredients.