The Importance of Noodles

For my son's third birthday I made a lot of food and served 16 people a full meal (including 4 happy kids!)

 

This doesn't really require a post as I just warmed pre-cooked Italian beef from Sam's, corn and green beans in crockpots to serve.  I forgot the three bags of salad sitting in my fridge (so we're having salad this week!), but I did make some fettucini alfredo in my biggest, 6 qt crockpot.  I literally boiled 2.5 lbs of dry egg noodles and threw them in with jarred alfredo sauce.  It was quite excellent, but I am left faced with a bit of a dilemma...

 

Because I wasn't sure how far a 5 lb bag of dry noodles would stretch, I purchased them blindly from Sam's along with the #10 cans of veggies and beef.  Needless to say, I only used HALF the bag for 16 people and there were a ton of leftovers.

 

Now I'm faced with a question - what do I do with 2.5 pounds of dry pasta for a household of only 2.5 people (myself, my fiance, and my son)?

 

My first idea came from my son - he was disappointed that the sauce wasn't marinara and that there were no meatballs involved with the noodles, so I think I'll make a baked meatball and noodle dish for one meal.

 

There are always the standard chicken soup recipes to throw them in (I prefer a Thai version with chopped leeks, fish sauce, and cabbage included.)

 

When I was a kid, we used to get a main meat, a vegetable, and a side of garlic salted, butter noodles. Still sounds delicious to me, but maybe a bit mature for my son.

 

So as I was racking my brain for noodly options, I decided to hit the 'net to see what billions of people had to say. I pushed aside the 101 versions of tuna casserole and was disappointed to mainly see the ideas I had already come up with; noodles as a side, noodles under saucy meatballs of various types, and noodles in soup.

 

There was one little thing I hadn't considered...

Noodles as a dessert. There is a Jewish dish called Kugel that combines leftover noodles with sweet ingredients to make a sort of noodly pudding.  As you'll see, the ingredients basically amount to a heavily dairy-based custard.  The version I list below can be found at http://allrecipes.com/recipe/kugel-2/detail.aspx, but I have made a few alterations to it based on the reviewers' suggestions. I also think that instead of serving it as a dessert, I'll see what people think of it for breakfast.

 

I'm going to give this recipe for a spin and see what comes of it! I'll let you know, fair bloggers!

 

Kugel

 

Ingredients
1 (8 ounce) package large egg noodles
6 tablespoons butter, sliced
6 egg whites

1/2 cup white sugar
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
4 tablespoons sour cream
1 (16 ounce) package cottage cheese, creamed
1 pinch salt

1/2 C. raisins soaked in hot water, drained
 
4 tablespoons butter, melted
1/4 cup white sugar

1 Tbsp cinnamon
1/3 cup graham cracker crumbs

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9x13 inch glass baking dish. (One reviewer suggest you cook this in a casserole dish for a thicker sliced end-result.)
Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain and stir in 6 tablespoons sliced butter.
In a medium bowl beat egg yolks with sugar and cream cheese; stir into noodles and add sour cream, cottage cheese and salt. (These can be combined in the food processor for a smoother texture.) Beat egg whites until stiff and fold into mixture. Add drained raisins.  Transfer mixture to prepared dish.
In a small bowl combine melted butter, 1/4 cup sugar, cinnamon, and graham cracker crumbs. Sprinkle over noodle mixture.
Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour.

 

And finally, for those curious - here is the wiki for Kugel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kugel.