Sun-Dried Tomato Mac n’ Cheese

I never thought macaroni and cheese was a summer recipe, until I made this easy sun dried tomato mac n’ cheese. It’s a parmesan mac n’ cheese based recipe that is rich but still light. Flavorful but not too complicated, and somehow fresh and perfect for summer.

Plus the best part is that you use a WHOLE jar of sun dried tomatoes. No need to figure out what to do with that other 1/3 of a jar once the recipe is over…because that’s the worst. I gotchu 😉

Why a whole jar of sun dried tomatoes?

First off, sun dried tomatoes are a gift from GOD. They simultaneously are sweet, salty, rich and umami all at once.

In this recipe I use a whole jar to:

1. Keep the recipe super easy, and help you avoid having any “what do I do with the rest of this jar?” thoughts.
2. Make the recipe lower waste! I mean have you ever used the oil in an olive jar before? That was me with sun dried tomato oil, so when I made this parmesan mac n’ cheese recipe, I knew I had to make it make sense.

What makes this recipe a lighter mac n’ cheese recipe?

Now “lighter” doesn’t mean “less calories” in this instance. That’s not my style. I f*cking love calories.

“Lighter” here means this meal is not as dense as other mac n’ cheeses, and is easier on the stomach and better in the warmer months. I’m using it mostly as a seasonal term, but it also means lighter in ingredient count too!

Most mac n’ cheeses contain multiple cheeses, but for this one we are only using parmesan. This makes the flavor profile a bit lighter, while also keeping this sun dried tomato mac n’ cheese super simple. And the sharp, saltiness of this cheese gives our macaroni and cheese a brighter, lighter flavor profile.

Plus the basil in this recipe lends some fresh herbaceous notes that you rarely get in macaroni and cheeses. All of these ingredients are working together to make this a light, fresh, any-time-of-year recipe.

The base of this easy macaroni and cheese recipe

I am a b*tch for a béchamel. A béchamel is one of the 5 French Mother Sauces (sometimes I can talk a culinary game 😉 and classically consists of a roux made up of butter, flour and milk. This one is slightly different due to the fact that we are using oil as the fat, then flour and then either a plant milk or whole milk.

The reason I never have an issue subbing out plant milks for whole milks is because:

1. You can never truly tell the difference in the final product and
2. I’m all about tiny tiny swaps that help us vote with our wallet. If you can’t tell the difference, might as well make the swap!

But overall, a béchamel is the elite mac n’ cheese base choice because it is so quick, so easy, creates creaminess even before the cheese hits the mac, and provides a lot of depth of flavor. Normal baked mac n’ cheeses just can’t top a béchamel, imo 😉

Ingredients you will need for this parmesan mac n’ cheese

Let’s keep it simple for this one – one jar of tomatoes, one kind of cheese, all kinds of delicious. Here’s what you will need for the sun dried tomato mac n’ cheese recipe!

• 1 bag or 16 oz. dried rigatoni
• 6 oz. parmesan
• 1 8 oz. jar of sun dried tomatoes, stored in oil
• ½ cup all-purpose flour
• 2 cups plant milk, or regular whole milk
• 1 tsp each of dried basil, thyme and oregano
• ¼ tsp red pepper
• 1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
• Salt and pepper to taste

How to bring this sun dried tomato mac n’ cheese together

Ingredients=simple, mac n’ cheese directions=easy. Here’s how to make this easy macaroni and cheese:

1. Grate your parmesan finely and set it aside.
2. In a large pot, bring 3 quarts of water to a boil and heavily salt the water. Pour in the rigatoni noodles and cook for 7 minutes or until al dente.
3. While the pasta is cooking, put a skillet on medium heat. Add the oil from the sun dried tomato jar to the skillet.
4. Add the all-purpose flour to the sun dried tomato oil and mix until combined. This will be the base of your bechamel sauce, so mix until the flour forms a thick paste.
5. Gradually pour in the milk to the saucepan, about 1/4-1/2 cup at a time, stirring constantly until a thick sauce forms.
6. After the creamy sauce has formed, add in the basil, thyme, oregano and red pepper flakes. Add salt & pepper to taste. (this will need a bit of salt, so taste and adjust as you see fit!)
7. Turn the heat down to low and add in the parmesan cheese, stir until a thick and creamy cheese sauce forms.
8. When your noodles are done cooking, strain them, but reserve about 2 tbsp of pasta water. Replace the noodles in the pot you cooked them in.
9. Pour the cheese sauce on top of the noodles, add in the full jar of sundried tomatoes, 2 tbsp of pasta water and chopped basil. Stir to combine.
10. Serve immediately while the pasta is still saucy and glossy. Top with more grated parmesan if you’d like!

FAQs

Looking for other macaroni & cheese recipes?

Here are a few of my favorites (and some with a little more mac than cheese!)

How to make this recipe without sun dried tomatoes that are stored in olive oil

Can’t find any olive oil tomatoes? Don’t sweat it, you can tweak this to be a sun dried tomato pasta, even if your tomatoes come naked in a bag.

Instead of starting with the oil from the tomato jar, begin with 2-3 tbsp of olive oil. Then to add some extra sun dried tomato flavor to the cooking process, add in about 1/4 cup of you tomatoes to the béchamel when it is fully emulsified.

Add the rest of the tomatoes in with the pasta as normal 🙂

It’s not the simplest way to do the recipe, but it’s a good work-around if you are in a pinch!

And that’s it for this easy macaroni and cheese recipe! It’s more pictures than words this time, but I wanted to get this post up for you guys in time to make it this week!

PS if you make these, please tag me on Pinterest or Instagram so I can see! I’m a woman of cheese so I’d love to see what you’re making.

And of course feel free to leave any questions, comments or reviews! This is the best place to reach me, and I’d love to hear from you <3

Watch the recipe video here:

https://youtu.be/T_JUHjKLG5c