Mac & Cheese

Elbow Mac & Cheese

This is for tonight. It's a too-much-work recipe that is also one of my defaults (i.e. something I eat more often than is heart-wise). I start with a variation on a Cooking Light recipe that came from my sister, where the cream sauce base is made on the stove top. I like to finish it in the oven for the crispy top, so I have mutated the recipe to be more like the all-oven ones, sans egg. Also, I usually use twice the cheese asked for in most recipes, closer to a full pound. Cheeeeeeeese...

I tends to look a lot like the photo above. Today I will be using a chedder-gruyere hybrid from Trader Joe's that is a pretty good sandwich cheese, but not one I want for cheese-and-crackers snacking. The texture is crumbly like the manchego or the goat milk cheddar to which I've recently taken a shine. I have whole milk in my refrigerator from making a shrimp & peas cream sauce the other night.

2 Tbl butter
4 Tbl flour
1/2 tsp dry mustard
pinch salt (omitted because I have salted butter)
pepper (white pepper would be ideal, black pepper is more robust)
2 C whole milk

In a small saucepan, melt butter over low heat. Add flour, mustard, and pepper until blended. (Make a roux.) Pour in milk, stirring constantly. Increase heat to high; bring to a boil 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.

8 ounces of cooked pasta (macaroni, shells, or penne)
up to 16 ounces of shredded cheeses (a little smoked cheese in the mix is very tasty, but don't make it with only that)
smoked paprika

Layer the pasta, cheese, and cream sauce in a casserole dish, as if making lasagna. Finish with sauce covering all the pasta and cheese as the top layer. Garnish with a sprinkle of paprika, if desired. Bake in a 450 oven for 15 minutes or until bubbling on top with a nicely browned layer. This works best with cheddar or mozzarella in the mix.

This is ready to eat hot. I have doubled the sauce from the original recipes because the sauce is my favorite part. This is a dish with a queso fundido quality, great if you are a bread lover. As leftovers, there is more sauce than the pasta can suck up, so it reheats pretty well. Tell yourself this when you are reaching for your 3rd serving.