After clearing up the mystery of pineapple tarts for me, my boyfriend’s niece brought up macaroni pies. “Macaroni pies?” I queried hesitantly, trying to equate pasta and pies. There was no mistake though, it is essentially macaroni cheese in a pie.

I spied a packeted pair in a supermarket a few days later, and purchased them for sampling. As you can see from the photo, there is a thin pastry case enclosing a small amount of macaroni cheese. There is some additional cheese on top of the pastry lid.

After warming in the oven, I tucked in. I found it to be quite pleasant. The pastry was slightly crisp but mainly soft, the macaroni reasonably cheesy, and the carbohydrate intensity was no worse than the cheese and potato pasties that one finds popping up all over the place. I would have liked more macaroni though. I saw a slightly different version in a bakers where there was no pastry lid, making it more of a macaroni tart. This might be preferable, as I assume you would get a better pasta to pastry ratio.

I would eat one again but I prefer regular macaroni cheese, though admittedly it lacks the portability of the pie.