Basic Macaroni Cheese

Basic Macaroni Cheese

Provided by: TASTE

50 mins total 0 mins prep Full Screen

Servings

Ingredients

• 1 cup macaroni, cooked according to package instructions
• For the basic cheese sauce:
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 2 cups whole milk, heated
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• your favorite cheese (see below)

Directions

• Preheat oven to 400 F.
• To make the basic cheese sauce: In a medium-sized saucepan over a medium heat, melt the butter, then whisk in the flour until smooth. Gradually whisk in the hot milk and cook, whisking, until thick and smooth. Season to taste. Divide the sauce in half.
• Kids version: 1/2 cup mild Cheddar, plus extra for sprinkling, grated; 2 tablespoons butter, plus extra for greasing. Stir the cheese into the basic cheese sauce and mix in half the macaroni. Turn into 2 or 3 small buttered baking dishes. Sprinkle with more Cheddar, dot with butter and place the dishes onto a baking tray. Bake for 20 minutes, or until golden and bubbly.
• Grown-up version: 1/2 cup goat's-milk cheese; 2 tablespoons pecorino; plus extra for sprinkling; grated and 1 cup mushrooms, sliced and sautéed; butter, for greasing. Stir the soft goat's-milk cheese and grated pecorino into the basic cheese sauce and mix in half the macaroni, together with the sautéed mushroom. Turn the mixture into a buttered baking dish and sprinkle with more pecorino. Bake for 20 minutes, or until golden and bubbly.

• Filed under:
• Pasta,
• Dairy,
• American,
• Baking,
• One-Dish,
• Vegetarian,
• Kid-Friendly,
• Dinner,
• Halloween,
• Super Bowl,
• Housewarming,
• Cookout

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Comments

[LemmonHerk]

08:40 PM on 01/15/2012

What a poorly-written recipe. Why is the cheese sauce divided in half? There's no mention of what to do with the other half. And after stirring in the goat's-milk and pecorino cheeses with, again, only half the macaroni, what happens to the other half? Doesn't anybody proof-read these? Not even the author?

[Cantinflas]

10:47 AM on 01/28/2012

I wondered about that, too. I think the idea is to use half the macaroni for the kids' version and half for the aduts". However, I don't think one cup of dry macaroni would provide enough pasta.Basically, the author tried to condense too much into one short recipe. A good basic recipe, which can be varied as to how much of what kinds of cheese you want to use is Ina Garten's :

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/mac-and-cheese-recipe2/index.html

[SteveDenver]

11:31 PM on 01/12/2012

SMOKED GOUDA! Still my favorite cheese for this type of recipe.

[Rytmisk Kykling]

09:06 PM on 01/12/2012

my grown up version would have you saute a yellow onion with the butter to make the roux/bechemal and when it thickens after adding the milk, add nutmeg, dijon mustard and a dash of hotsauce. Also, capatavi is the way to go, pasta wise, for me. I admit, cheddar is ok for me, albeit a nice aged white cheddar does make this dish a little pricy, but worth it!

[Kim Hughes Brown]

02:49 PM on 01/12/2012

That would be pretty soupy Mac & Cheese. For a thicker version of the same use 2 cups of elbows and 2 Tbsp. butter.

[Rytmisk Kykling]

09:03 PM on 01/12/2012

Kim, I think you missed the "divide sauce in half."