I really enjoy cooking sometimes, and I have pretty much nailed Mac ‘n cheese down to an art. This isn’t your store-bought instant variety, which I’m fine with occasionally, but rather a recipe that I have been making and have perfected through trial and error over the span of my adult life.
So, let’s go over the ingredients –
- Macaroni (250-300g/ about 9oz)
- Salted Butter (125g/ about 1 stick of butter for Americans)
- Flour (1 cup but you may or may not use it all)
- Milk (500-750ml/ 1/2 -3/4 qt.)
- Cheese (I normally use cheddar)
- Salt and Pepper
You will also need:
- 2 pots – 1 for pasta, and 1 for your sauce
- An oven-proof dish
- Whisk
- Sieve
I know, I know. I’ve been pretty vague with the measurements here, but to be quite honest I don’t really measure anything. I’ve been making this recipe for over 10 years, after all. So, take these measurements with a pinch of salt (lol)
The most important part is the white sauce. You can’t be in a hurry to make it, like my brother who makes a curdled, lumpy mess almost every time. Normally, I will put the pasta on to cook and get Siri to time 8 minutes. For me, this is enough to get the sauce going. If it’s your first time making it and you don’t want to ruin your sauce then let the pasta cook first, drain it, and set it aside. Just don’t forget to salt the water when you make your pasta!
To make the white sauce, chop the butter up into dice-sized pieces and throw them in a saucepan on a medium-low heat . Have the flour and milk at the ready. Once the butter is melted and starts to look frothy, incrementally add the flour – I usually put the sieve over the pot, and add small amounts of flour, then whisk the butter/flour mixture until smooth.
To be safe, turn the heat down to a low setting and keep adding flour through the sieve, making sure you only add little bits of flour at a time, whisking out any lumps before adding more. You should have a fairly thick consistency as you approach 1/2 cup of flour. I aim for a paste-like consistency where the mixture is no longer runny and starts gumming up the whisk, if it looks a bit grainy that’s okay because it’s time to start adding milk. So long as there are no giant lumps of flour!
Once again, with the milk, go slow – add a splash at first, and whisk it in. Don’t freak out if your mixture starts getting doughy, just add a little more milk and whisk it until smooth. Rinse and repeat until the mixture is quite runny. You can then add the remaining milk at this point, making sure to stir the mixture well. Add a little salt and pepper, if you like.
Turn your saucepan back up to a medium heat and stir occasionally as it warms. You don’t want to heat it up too quickly as this puts you in danger of burning the sauce, wasting all your ingredients – it’s almost impossible to save a burnt white sauce and it smells awful. The burnt sauce is also really difficult to clean. I am talking from experience, of course.
To check how far your sauce is, feel the top edge of your pot – if it’s still cold, you’ve got to wait a little longer. Keep stirring it occasionally, once it starts to steam a little it’s high alert – you’re very close to finished. If you’re brave, you can turn up the heat a little.
The sauce will start to thicken at the bottom. Once you feel it start to thicken, you need to keep stirring it until it’s cooked through – this happens pretty quickly. Use a whisk, preferably, to make sure the bubbling sauce is mixed thoroughly as it cooks. It should become thick and creamy before long; after a couple of minutes once you are satisfied it has reached consistency you can turn the heat off. Add some cheese to the mixture, stir it in until it’s melted. I don’t usually add more than a small handful here.
Now, to combine everything there are a few methods you can use. You can mix everything together in a big bowl, or use the pot you cooked the pasta in, but to save on dishes what I usually do is the following: Put the pasta in your oven-proof dish, pour the sauce over it, then use a spoon to fold the pasta at the edges into the mixture. You can add a little more cheese if you like. I normally reserve most of it for the top.
Once your pasta and sauce are mixed, sprinkle cheese over the top. If you want to make it seem a little healthier, you can add some tomato slices to the top before the cheese, but I’m not about that life and just sprinkle enough cheese to cover the top.
Finally, put it in your oven set to broil or grill (depending where you are from in the world) until the cheese is gold and crispy. If you pre-heat the oven it should only take a minute or 2, so keep an eye on it! Retrieve your Mac ‘n cheese from the oven, let it cool for a minute or 2 – it is now ready to serve.
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