Old-Fashioned Tomato Mac and Cheese
This mac and cheese recipe has a delicious old-fashioned twist—the cheese sauce has tomato juice for flavor and is baked with canned stewed tomatoes. My Grandma always added her home-canned whole tomatoes to her mac and cheese.
Homemade mac and cheese with tomatoes is our family’s favorite comfort food when we don’t know what to make for dinner and need a carb fix. Hot out of the oven and loaded with salt and pepper, this is one of my favorite pasta dishes. This recipe comes from my mother-in-law; she used to make it for my husband, so it’s one of his childhood comfort foods.
Making mac and cheese with tomatoes is a delicious and affordable way to change up your mac and cheese. It’s very old-fashioned, and perhaps it was born from the endless supply of stewed canned tomatoes in so many farm pantries so many years ago!
- 2 cups elbow macaroni uncooked
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 cup tomato juice
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 3 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese divided
- one 798 ml can whole tomatoes drained then pierced to let the juice drain from the middle as well