TESTED > RECREATING IAN'S FAMOUS MAC AND CHEESE PIZZA

our version of macaroni and cheese pizza

Lauren and I set out to recreate an at-home version of macaroni and cheese pizza from Ian's during Sunday's Golden Globe's. As a UW Badger alum, Ian's Pizza was originally opened on campus in Madison, WI and will always have a special place in my heart. There's now an Ian's Pizza in Wrigleyville in Chicago, and their interesting recipe combinations (steak and fries, mac and cheese, chicken pesto, chicken parmesan) are now available within a dangerously close location to me. From the sounds (and maybe looks) of it, it looks like a drunken genius combination that only a college student would eat. I promise, it's not! It's chewy, delicious, cheesy and satisfying - a perfect take on one of my favorite comfort foods - in a grab-and-go slice. 

Lauren and I wanted to see if we could recreate a cheaper version on our own, and we (and our sampling friends) loved the results! Here's our ingredients, more photos and recipe...

Ingredients:  

• 1 package of Trader Joe's whole wheat pizza dough, $0.99
• 1 container of Trader Joe's creme fraiche, $3.19 (impatient and hungry means not waiting 8-24 hours to make our own)
• 4 cups of whole wheat pasta shells, $3.14 for a whole box
• 2 cups shredded mild cheddar
• 2 cups shredded medium cheddar
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella
• salt and pepper, to taste 

As avid cheese lovah's, we had block cheese in the fridge already and boiling the whole box of whole wheat pasta gave us plenty of leftovers for the week even after using some for our pizza topping.

Our total cost of twentysomething test dummies mac n' cheese pizza = $7.32 which easily fed four vs. Ian's large pizza for $24.

Add whole wheat pasta shells (just what we had on hand, elbow would work too) to boiling water and under cook to account for oven cooking, about 5 minutes. Remove from water and pour into colander. 

Let whole wheat pizza dough stand at room temperature for 20 mins. Stretch dough by hand or roll out with flour. We didn't worry too much about creating a perfect round or square shape and just chalked the organic dough shape up to a more rustic at-home look. AKA lazy. We split the dough in half and cooked two large pizzas on a pizza stone since we preferred a thinner, crispier crust. 

rolled out whole wheat pizza dough

 Drizzle with a bit of extra virgin olive oil.

 Spread a thin layer of creme fraiche.

Sprinkle whole wheat pasta and shredded cheese. Any cheese would taste delicious (is too much cheese ever a bad thing?), but we opted for a mixture of three: mild cheddar, medium cheddar and mozzarella to closely resemble Ian's version. 

Place on to pizza stone or greased pan and pop into 400 degree oven for approximately 20 minutes, until cheese is melted, or crust is as crispy or chewy as you'd like. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste, cut and gobble loudly like neanderthals. We loved coming up with this mac and cheese recipe because we didn't have to be strict with measuring ingredients or cooking time and just wung it! 

Tah dah! The finished pizza. Gobble, gobble.

Comments

[Michele]

Yummy! You're such a creative chef, Robin!!!

[TC]

Mac & Cheese + pizza?!? Yeah, this recipe and me were practically MFEO. Drool...

[Jen]

Love that you discovered the "secret" ingredient! Ian's would not disclose this information to me when I asked one night at 2 am.

[plumbing]

If you're using sausage, you'll want to cook it before you place it on the pizza. We like a sausage that crumbles, like Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage, but again, feel free to use whatever makes you happy.