Macaroni & Cheese

January 28th, 2010

Believe me, this is not the stuff you make for your kids. No bright yellow powder or processed cheese product. This is really good. I think if I make it again, I will make twice as much sauce for the amount of noodles. I made this for my friend, Sarah, and her family, and if they are telling the truth, they loved it. George & I had some, too, and we really liked it, except something kind of weird happened with the bread crumbs on top. They were too crunchy. I thought it would be a good use for some stale bread, but maybe I should have used really fresh bread.

Here's how it went.

You start by putting a slice of onion, a bay leaf, a little fresh thyme, and a couple sliced garlic cloves in 3 cups of milk. Warm the milk until it starts to bubble at the edges and then turn it off. Let the milk steep with the aromatics for at least 10 minutes.

Grate 2-3 cups of cheese. Deborah Madison says 1 1/2 cups, but I used more and I thought it worked out well. I used smoked 2 cups of smoked cheddar and 1 cup Emmentaler swiss.

Boil elbow macaroni noodles (be sure to add a handful of salt to the boiling water before putting the macaroni in to cook). The recipe calls for a full pound, but in the future I plan to use 1/2 pound. While the pasta is boiling, heat 3 T. butter in a large pan. When it is melted, stir in 3 T. flour. Strain the hot milk directly into the butter, flour mixture. Whisk until a little thicker, and then cook over low heat for 20 minutes or so, stirring frequently. It should thicken up and

Drain the macaroni and put it into a buttered casserole dish. Pour in the roux (flour, butter, milk mixture) and then add the cheeses. Mix well. Top with fresh mozzarella slices and bread crumbs. Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes.

If you use the full pound of macaroni noodles, this makes A LOT of macaroni and cheese. It's a nice dish to take to a pot luck.

I served this with sauteed spinach with lemon zest and a little lemon juice. The spinach was even better than the mac & cheese, in my opinion. I also made some roasted red pepper soup as a starter, which was divine. A simple salad and some bread would probably suffice for dinner.

Approximate cost:
1 pound elbow macaroni noodles - $2.50
2 cups smoked cheddar - $3.00
1 cup Emmentaler - $.50 (I got this in a large block)
3 cups milk - $1.20
4 slices mozzarella - $1.00
bread crumbs - $.20
flour, butter, aromatics - negligible
TOTAL $8.40 for about 8-10 servings.