Monthly Archives: June 2012

In the last 20 years, Mac & Cheese has become synonymous with children’s food, which is really unfair in my opinion. I blame this misperception entirely on the blue box, which is only mac & cheese in the broadest sense of the words.

Real mac & cheese starts with a béchamel sauce, and that fact alone should elevate it’s status. By making it from scratch, you can use a variety of grown-up cheeses that will take your mac & cheese from nursery food to the most unctuous and creamy comfort food of them all. I’ve used a 50/50 blend of goat cheese and blue cheese and it was amazing!  Pepper Jack and Cheddar is another favorite.

My standard recipe is a pound and a half of goat cheese cut with a half pound of cheddar. Play around with the proportions and find what you like best.

I never make just one mac & cheese, as it’s just as easy to make two at one time and pop the second in the freezer for a weeknight when you just can’t be bothered to cook. If you’d prefer to make only one, cut this recipe in half.

First we’re going to make a roux. Melt the butter in a large sauce pan over medium heat.

Sprinkle the melted butter with flour and stir together.

Continue to stir over heat until the flour and butter are well combine, then switch to a whisk.

The consistency will be more like cookie dough than cake batter. Allow the roux to darken just a little, whisking continuously. At this stage, I like to add a teaspoon of red pepper flakes to give the mac & cheese the slightest hint of heat. If you are serving very young children you may want to skip this step but it truly won’t result in a spicy mac & cheese if you add it.

Add the milk to your roux and whisk to combine thoroughly. Bump the heat up to medium high and bring the milk to a low boil, all the while whisking to keep the milk from scorching on the bottom of the pan. When the milk has reached the barest boil, remove from heat. Congratulations! You’ve just made a béchamel sauce.

Add heavy cream, Dijon mustard, salt and pepper to the béchamel and stir.

Add your cheeses to the sauce stir. Don’t worry if the residual heat doesn’t melt the cheese entirely, as it will have plenty of time to melt in the oven.

While working on your sauce you’ll need to cook two pounds of penne pasta in salted water. It’s important to drain the pasta when it’s just shy of  al dente. That’s because we want it to continue to absorb liquid when it’s in the cheese sauce. You will also need to retain a cup of the cooking water from the pasta. I find the best way  to remember this is to place a measuring cup in your pasta strainer while the pasta is cooking.

When the pasta is ready, put it in a large bowl and add the cheese sauce, stirring to combine. The mixture should be looser than the mac & cheese you make from the box. If your sauce appears to be to thick, add the reserved pasta water 1/4 cup at a time until the sauce is loose.

Now is the time to taste the sauce and correct any seasoning.

Pour the mac & cheese into two pans, one for freezing. You can stop now and have an absolutely lovely mac & cheese for dinner or you can add a topping that will take this dish into the realm of the sublime. (If you decide to make the top, do not add it to the mac & cheese that’s bound for the freezer. You can add it when you are ready to bake that one. The topping recipe below makes only enough for 1 mac & cheese.)

Panko are just Japanese bread crumbs but they are much more crisp. Don’t attempt this topping with regular bread crumbs or you’ll end up with a soggy mess. Most grocery stores carry panko now, either in the Asian section or with the regular bread crumbs. (Progresso makes panko now.)

Mix 2 cup of panko with 1/4 stick of melted butter and 1 cup of shredded cheese and stir, stir, stir to combine.

(If you’re feeling particularly decadent, you can cook two pieces of bacon, replace the butter with bacon grease and add the crumbled bacon to the topping. YUM!)

Sprinkle the mixture over the dish and press down with the palm of your hand to flatten.

Cover the dish with foil, place it on a sheet tray and pop into a 400 degree oven until hot and bubbly, about 40 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for an additional 5-10 minutes, until the crust is a golden brown.

We serve this as a main course, with a large green salad on the side. Serves 6 adults as a main course.

FOR THE TOPPING (Makes enough for 1 dish)

• ¼ stick unsalted butter, melted
• 2 cups panko
• 1 cup coarsely grated Cheddar

FOR CHEESE SAUCE AND PASTA (Makes 2 dishes)

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 4 1/2  cups whole milk
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 1 1/2 pounds mild goat cheese
• 1/2 cup coarsely grated extra-sharp Cheddar
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 3  teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 pounds penne