Shrimp, Feta and Fresh Herb Mac n Cheese

I love Pinterest.  I go on every single day and look for new recipes to try.  I look for craft ideas, ideas to help make our house prettier/better/more useful.  Pinterest has everything.  I saw this recipe while pinning a few weeks ago and decided to give it a shot.  I mean come on, it's a twist on such a great Southern Comfort Food, with shrimp, how could it go wrong?!

Photo from Annie's Eats - author's photography

The original recipe is from Annie's Eats blog.  That's another great thing about Pinterest - I can find blogs I would have never found without the website.  The blog is wonderful and I plan to add it to my list of daily blogs to check out.  (The list keeps growing and growing and growing...)

I stayed with the recipe from start to finish.  The only thing I did add was some fresh, chopped up bacon that we had on hand. It was delicious.  The night I made the meal we had 4 other people at hour house for dinner, I needed something that could feed a crowd and wouldn't keep me in the kitchen all evening.  This was perfect.  The 6 of us, three men and three women, ate a little less than half of the dish.  Last night three of us had leftovers and we still have enough for two more servings.  This meal goes the distance!

The ingredient list isn't crazy either, which is nice.

Ingredients:
1 lb. pasta shapes
1 lb. raw shrimp (31-40 ct.), peeled and deveined, cut in half (if desired)
10 oz. feta cheese, crumbled and divided
Zest of 1 lemon, divided
½ cup Panko breadcrumbs
2 tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped, divided
5 tbsp. butter, divided
4 tbsp. all-purpose flour
3 cups milk
2 tbsp. fresh dill, chopped  (I used dried dill from the pantry)
8 oz. Gruyere cheese, shredded (about 2 cups)
½ tsp. kosher salt
½ tsp. ground black pepper


For the pasta, I used elbow macaroni because that was all I had on hand in the quantity that we needed.  Apparently it's time to do some pasta shopping.

The feedback from everyone, all SEVEN of us who have had some, has been very positive.  It was such an easy recipe, I'm so glad it was so delicious so I can add it to my mental cookbook.