Featured Wisconsin Cheeses: Fontina, Gouda, GranQueso
Seafood and cheese are two of my very favorite food groups (cheese is a food group in itself), so when I was asked to create a mac and cheese recipe inspired by a classic dish, a seafood mix came to mind – specifically paella. Traditional paella has so much complexity, and I wanted to bring just a hint of that flavor to a mac and cheese made with the boldest melty cheeses in all of Wisconsin. I chose three – Wisconsin Fontina, Gouda and GranQueso® – to come together among whispers of saffron and bites of seafood, peas, and peppers.
This recipe is very easy to make and involves cooking noodles, a cheese sauce and a paella mix and tossing them together in a bowl. I melted together the buttery Fontina and bold, nutty Gouda as the cheese base and topped the finished dish with GranQueso for a bite of sophistication. Use a pound of any kind of seafood you like – shrimp solo, a medley of clams, mussels, lobster and scallops or add some chorizo as well. We kept things simple and used a mix of shrimp, bay scallops and calamari.
The notes of saffron blended with cheesy coated noodles, buttery seafood, spicy peppers and earthy peas. We served heaps of mac alongside simple spinach salads for a special weeknight dinner. The only thing missing was a glass of Spanish wine!
Paella Mac & Cheese
Serves 8
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 bell pepper, thinly sliced
1 pound mixed seafood, shelled
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
15-20 saffron threads, divided
1/2 cup frozen peas
1 pound small pasta noodles, such as fusilli, elbows or shells
1 1/2 cups cold milk
2 tablespoons flour
1/8 teaspoon smoked paprika
2 cups (8 ounces) Wisconsin Fontina Cheese, shredded
1 cup (4 ounces) Wisconsin Gouda Cheese, shredded
1/3 cup (about 1 1/3 ounces) Wisconsin GranQueso Cheese, grated
Directions:
In large frying pan, heat olive oil; add bell pepper and seafood; sauté over medium heat, adding salt and half the saffron threads. Cook 5-8 minutes until seafood is cooked through and beginning to brown (you may need to let some of the liquid cook off before this happens). Add peas and cook 2-3 minutes more, until peas are cooked and hot; set aside.
Meanwhile, cook pasta according to directions. In separate pan; add milk and whisk in flour; add remaining saffron threads and paprika. Cook mixture over medium-high heat until nearly boiling, stirring frequently. Continue until thickened like cream. Reduce heat to low and add Fontina and Gouda cheeses, 1 cup at a time, stirring after each addition until the cheese is melted.
In large bowl, combine seafood mixture and cheese sauce; mix well. Top with GranQueso Cheese and serve.
42 Responses to “Paella Mac & Cheese”
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Couple of questions:
Won’t the tiny shrimp, bay scallops, and calamari overcook in 5-8 minutes?
Wont the flour lump up in the milk if you don’t create a roux (by first sauteing the flour in butter, then adding the milk)?
I was wondering the same thing–about the milk and flour combo. Is the butter omitted in order to reduce the fat and calories? I’d love to know that it is possible to make a low-fat bechamel.
I’m assuming that if you choose mussels, you wouldn’t shell them? I’ve never cooked mussels before, but I can’t think of a dish I’ve ever eaten them in in which they weren’t served in the shell.
Seafood and cheese are two of my very favorite food groups (cheese is a food good in itself
What does this mean, exactly?
Where can I buy these Wisconsin cheeses?
This sounds delicious, but I’m not sure where to buy the ingredients. How many calories do you estimate each serving to have?
Thanks!
@Colleen Our shrimp mix was previously frozen and we had to cook it a bit longer than say, a bone-dry fresh shrimp or scallop, to get it crisp. I included a greater time range and said “until it begins to brown” to account for these variations.
Most of the stove-top mac and cheese recipes I consulted use the whisk-flour-in-cold-milk method, and I’ve never had trouble with lumps. Just be sure to give it some good whisking!
@Patience Shelling the mussels is up to you. Since you’re cooking the seafood and then tossing together, I think either way would work
@Karen – that’s a typo! Food GROUP!
I can’t imagine paella without clams. At what point in this recipe would you add them? And how would you alter to cooking time to factor in the clams?
Sorry, but this sounds gross. I’ve made countless batches of homemade mac and cheese, and the flour into cold milk idea DOES NOT work. You’ll have a thin, lumpy sauce with a raw flour taste. If by some miracle you can get the lumps out, there’s no losing the taste of the flour in the finished sauce.
I find it hard to believe that most of the recipes you consulted used the cold milk/flour method, as every recipe I’ve found within the first 3 pages of a Google search use either a combo of eggs and evaporated milk to get a thick, creamy sauce in place of making a roux, or starts with making a roux. These are the methods of choice of Cooks Illustrated, Alton Brown, Martha Stewart, Ina Garten, etc. – all reliable sources, and some of the first places anyone doing research into recipes should look.
Wisconsin Cheese, you really should test these recipes for accuracy before someone goes ahead and wastes 3+ cups of cheese on a recipe that is doomed to be disappointing at best, disgusting at worst.
Looks good Kath! Can’t wait make it. I haven’t had trouble whisking flour into cold milk as long as it is cold it should be fine.
This does not look/sound appetizing at all to me. I feel like it is a disservice to both paella and mac and cheese
I don’t know why you wouldn’t just make a roux with butter. If you’re already putting over three cups of cheese in a dish, I can’t imagine why anyone would care about an extra tbsp of butter.
I clicked on this because the combination sounded interesting, but it seems like there might be some typos or some steps left out? A white sauce with raw flour stirred into milk would taste terrible. I also don’t understand cooking delicate seafood for 8 minutes, or what it means for shrimp to “brown.” That sounds like a rubbery mess. This recipe seems like it should go back for some editing or testing before it’s published on your website.
Good Grief! This looks just awful! Overcooked seafood, lumpy sauce and a poorly constructed recipe. I won’t even get into the argument about combining cheese with shellfish, but suffice it to say that many reputable chefs and seafood purists are vehemently opposed to the practice.
I checked out this woman’s blog and all of her recipes appear to be as poorly conceived and terribly executed as this one.
It seems a bit illogical to me that so many women are criticizing this recipe without having first made the paella mac & cheese for themselves. True, you’ve had poor outcomes mixing flour and cold milk while preparing your own unique versions of mac & cheese. True, mac & cheese and paella offer two very distinct flavors that are rarely combined. But with that being said, I see no harm in keeping an open mind to fresh approaches to a favorite recipe.
One of the aspects of cooking that I love most is the fact that, in the kitchen, nothing is ever set in stone. A recipe or technique that might have worked for you one day might not deliver the same results another time. The kitchen is a place for innovation and creativity where each new recipe has the potential to blow you away.
I began following Kath’s blog a few months ago, and have made several of her recipes since then. Many are unconventional and introduce flavor combinations that I would never have considered myself. Each recipe has yielded a result more lovely and appetizing than the last.
Give this recipe a try before judge too quickly. Every recipe (even the ones endorsed by the Food Network stars) is a risk, but if you never mix it up in the kitchen, how can you know what you’re missing out on?
Kath, keep doing what your doing. You have a horde of blog-followers who wouldn’t have it any other way.
Caroline, I think there’s a difference between keeping an open mind, and recipe instructions/directives that just don’t work! There’s no getting around the fact that flour into cold milk results in a wan, bland, and virtually flavorless sauce (save for the taste of flour, that is). There’s a reason why you have to look harder to find recipes that would use this method than the scores of others that don’t (I found one, from a personal blog, among over ten pages of searching, so don’t really believe this recipe was based on many others). That’s why I have a problem with the recipe research that’s supposedly been conducted – of the one or two (I’ll give the benefit of the doubt that there’s at least one more!) recipes that are floating around the internet that indicate you don’t need a roux (or the evaporated milk/eggs combo), check out the comments! They’re filled with remarks that the recipe as written wasn’t great, and agreements amongst commenters that a dish based on a basic white sauce is missing a great deal in texture and flavor if not made with a roux (or reasonable replacement).
Of course there’s always a chance a “pro” recipe might have an error. This isn’t an apples to apples comparison – this recipe as written has glaring errors that anyone with an ounce of cooking experience can identify from a mile away. Quite frankly if I’m going to go out and buy three cheeses for a recipe, I expect it to have a reasonable chance of coming out properly.
I don’t know anything about the girl who wrote this recipe, but that’s irrelevant – this recipe could be posted on eGullet, Chowhound, Food Network, etc. and my response would be exactly the same. There is a REASON why certain recipes start with the same basic instruction. People who DON’T have a great deal of cooking experience deserve to be forewarned when a recipe contains instructions that are sure to result in a less than stellar end product. Otherwise, there’s a very good chance they will blame themselves and not realize it’s the recipe that let them down.
Why would you try a recipe that doesn’t sound appealing? This is not an inexpensive recipe and would be a colossal waste of money if it turned out poorly. This just doesn’t sound good at all, the ingredients don’t make sense (there’s nothing “paella” about it) and the technique is iffy at best.
Did anyone at the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board test the recipes before publishing? The other recipes in this series have been much better, I’m really disappointed.
Being from Wisconsin, I’m thoroughly embarrassed for our cheese.
I don’t follow this blogger at all so I have no real interest in all the debates just wondering if grandqueso is spicy at all
Has this recipe been tested by your kitchen or only by the author?
You know honestly this looks pretty foul so i guess it doesn’t matter if the cheese is spicy or not. Luckily there were so many delicious looking recipes submitted I can just scroll on by this one!
Josie’s comment is actually a very valid point- nowhere in this recipe is the flavor profile of “Grandqueso” mentioned. Between the “Buttery” Fontina and the “Nutty” Gouda, what are we supposed to make of “sophisticated grandqueso”? Does that mean spicy? Does that mean a subtle and refined flavor? Does that mean the cheese wears a monocle? It’s ridiculous that isn’t addressed.
Also- seafood really should not be browned. That is a surefire sign it is overcooked. The only time it should be browned is if it is seared, and, given the extremely long cooking time and the implication that it is boiling in its own defrosting juices, this is not an application of a sear.
Finally, it seems many wannabe recipe authors attempt to make a recipe more versatile by allowing for substitutions, such as “any shelled seafood.” Yet as many others have pointed out, different types of seafood would produce very, very different results in this recipe. By not adhering to recipe specifics throughout it both invalidates the result (Because unless the recipe author actually tried every suggestion, how would they know its validity?), but also leaves the home cook not knowing which option to use. Nevermind the fact that cheese (Which is not a food group!) and seafood rarely have a place together, but cheese and paella have even less to do with one another. I could see substituting pasta for the rice in paella, maybe, and I could see possibly adding some shrimp to a macaroni and cheese under very careful circumstances. This is clearly the sign of a home cook with some free expensive ingredients on hand that decided to throw them together and call it…..”good”.
We appreciate your interest and comments about this recipe and want to assure you that we’ve successfully tested the recipe. The GranQueso Cheese used in the recipe is a Spanish-style cheese similar to Manchego. It has a mild, nutty flavor and firm texture, and is perfect for grating over the top of dishes.
With more than 100 recipes on our blog, we recognize that there are numerous methods for making a delicious macaroni and cheese, from those that start with a roux (and many of ours do), to others with cheese and sour cream, milk and cornstarch, egg and evaporated milk, and many more. We hope that you’ll explore the recipes our blog has to offer and find one with that offers the flavor combinations and method you are looking for.
Yikes, this recipe made my stomach turn just imagining the pile of chewy, overcooked seafood swimming in a pool of flour-flavored cheese. This woman clearly knows very little about cooking techniques or flavor profiles. If this recipe was indeed tested as noted above, was it followed exactly or were modifications made to make it more palatable?
I notice you didn’t mention flour and cold milk as a start to a successful recipe.
You’ll note that all of your numerous methods contain either a roux, milk or evaporated milk with either egg or cornstarch as a thickener. None use the method above, and you honestly have to look pretty hard to find more than a single internet recipe that uses it. This was poorly researched, period. If your suggestion is that this is NOT the case, please explain how and why the flour/cold milk method above is preferable to using a roux or other method. I’d really love to know why!
Creativity is one thing; not knowing the fundamentals of cooking is another. This recipe falls into the latter category.
Looks yummy! Maybe when I can do dairy again, I will try a veggie version!
I can’t believe how many negative and nitpicking replies there were to a normal recipe. I mean obviously all of you are amazing cooks, internationally known for your dishes and your absolutely perfect cooking techniques. Oh no, wait a minute, I’ve never heard of a single one of you. Oh right, that’e because you’re just trolls. Happy eating
I grew up in Wisconsin and am disgusted that our lovely cheeses were wasted in this recipe.
Nikki, are you actually implying that we’re not allowed to give real feedback on a recipe that will end up tasting like raw flour? I would be LIVID if I used such costly ingredients just to that as the end result. Making a roux (or one of the evaporated milk and egg techniques) is BARE MINIMUM for making even a passable mac and cheese.
Sorry, real life doesn’t give you a trophy just for showing up. And sorry (not sorry) if the truth gives you an ouchie.
This looks disgusting and a visit to Kath’s website confrms that she has no business posting recipes. She has weird food issues and appears to be a terrible home cook. I am not a troll, just someone who appreciates food.
Nikki, do me a favor and go on a hunt for mac and cheese recipes that use the cold milk/raw flour sauce method above. Then, do a comparative search for recipes using a typical roux or other, tested, thickening methods. Notice a difference? This recipe is NOT a normal recipe, that’s kind of the point of these comments. It’s not nitpicking to ask for either well-tested recipes, or commentary on why this particular (and highly unusual, nonsensical) instruction has been used in place of a standard (proven, reliable) method that’s been in place since the invention of white sauce. And, for what it’s worth, I’ve won awards for my mac and cheese – it was very happy eating indeed!
Bella – Clearly you don’t agree with the recipe, so why would you even bother to buy the ingredients to make it? There – now you can save yourself the time of being LIVID. God, what a joke. Pathetic.. Do people not have anything better to do??? And why are you worried other people will try it? Thats THEIR problem – not yours! If you don’t like something, move on. There are millions of other recipes. It’s almost laughable how worked up and upset you guys are over this! You must have a pretty good life if this concerns you so much. God – grow up, take a deep breath and let it go. Go find something that makes you happy if you’re capable of that.
Can I ask, what brand of saffron is being used in this recipe? I’ve used the expensive type, and using that many saffron threads is over the top–the taste would be unbearable, especially as the dish ages. On the other hand there’s lower-quality saffron (powdered or threads), that’s adulterated and just not as good.
this is horrendous, and the smell of fish and this cheese would be off-putting at best. I agree with the comments warning you off this recipe, it would absolutely taste like raw flour.
Hi, this recipe looks very tasty. I’m excited about trying it out very soon. You’ve created some intriguing flavor profiles here which sing to my tastebuds.
Thank you for the note on what the cheese is like. While i have no interest in this recipe (no nice way to say it looks really disgusting) I am interested in the grandqueso cheese so hey something has been accomplished!
The photo of the dish looks delicious, but I’m wondering why there isn’t any onion or garlic in a “paella” cheesy mac?
Also, I think the saffron amount must be a typo. Most recipes don’t require anywhere near that much, and saffron is not a cheap ingredient.
Does anybody actually measure out 1/8th of a teaspoon, or do you guys do as I do and just shake a little into the pot?
I chose not to read through the comments before trying this recipe and I am sure glad I didn’t! I made this tonight for my husband and we both thought it was excellent! I had no trouble with lumps in the sauce and there was absolutely no “raw flour” taste. Additionally the sauce was delicious and coated the shrimp and pasta beautifully. Speaking of the shrimp, I was a tad bit worried about the amount of time called to cook it, however the shrimp was cooked perfectly and added a superb flavor to the dish.
If you don’t agree with a recipe – then do it your own way, don’t just bash the author. As someone who has given the recipe a try – as it is written – I can say that it is absolutely terrific!
While I understand that this recipe was just “inspired” by paella, it would have been nice to include at least one Spanish cheese.
This question is for the recipe author.
I made this last night for dinner for my family despite the negative reviews because I thought it sounded yummy and healthy. I might make it again, but I need to know how long to whisk the flour. I whisked for five minutes and I could not get the flour to de-clump. Also, the flavor of that sauce was a bit strange. Maybe I did something wrong? Also, what kind of saffron did you use. Thanks!!!
Some of the comments here are quite harsh! But I agree that this dish needs work. For one thing, the cheese sauce is basically the most important component, so I do find it odd that the author doesn’t suggest making a roux. Mixing cold milk and flour really does produce questionable results at best.
Further, I’m put off by the lack of seasoning in this recipe. For 8 servings, the only seasoning (other than salt) is a measly 1/8 of a teaspoon of smoked paprika! At the very least, it strikes me that the recipe would be greatly improved by the addition of sauteed garlic, and even a bit of onion. I know this isn’t a traditional paella, but since it’s called “paella mac and cheese,” it stands to reason that the flavour would mirror the authentic dish, which ALWAYS includes garlic and onion.
Okay, I love me a good Mac and Cheese dish, so I tried it. Umm, I like to think that with 20+ years in the kitchen (6 kids later)I could figure a recipe out fairly easily. Hubby and I were both looking forward to a great meal. The result? My apologies to the author of the recipe, but we threw it out, it was that bad. I wish I had gone with my gut (and so many of the commenters above) and not tried to make the cheese sauce out of milk and flour. It.does.not.work. Lumpy with an overpowering flavour of flour. We tried to pick the seafood out…but alas, it was like eating rubber. What a disappointment. Not impressed. Please could you put a warning on this recipe to the tune of ‘Attempt at own Risk’? I would have steered far clear of this one.
Sophie- can you post your mac and cheese recipe somewhere? I would love to make and eat a Mac and cheese that has won awards! Thanks!