No case needs to be made for why you should bake a luxurious homemade macaroni and cheese for your family or for yourself. It is simply a good idea.
The building blocks to a successful macaroni and cheese are easy and few, but they are specific and necessary.
1. Pasta. Use any style of short, squat pasta that you like, but it’s hard to beat good old-fashioned elbows.
2. Bechamel sauce. Much easier to prepare than to spell — just whisk butter with flour, add heat and milk. Simple, but essential. This makes the difference between a bowl of pasta with clumps of melted goo all over it, and pasta draped in a silky cheese sauce.
3. Cheese. The marquee ingredient. Pick one, or pick a combo, but pick cheese that melts easily and evenly. Think cheddar, jack, fontina, gorgonzola. And burn the calories to shred it yourself; pre-shredded cheese is just not as good.
4. Bread crumbs. Absolutely required. Use fresh breadcrumbs whenever you can, but day- or week-old crumbs are better than none.
Accessorize with whatever add-ins you like — frozen peas, chopped leftover ham, roasted green chiles, chunks of cooked lobster, Worcestershire sauce, red pepper flakes, mustard. But use care: Interfering with the integrity of a simple macaroni and cheese is risky business. Be judicious.
Macaroni and cheese is best served with a very lightly dressed salad and a glass of spry white wine (perhaps an Alsatian pinot gris) or a soft red from Burgundy. Also good with a cold glass of milk.
Baked Macaroni and Cheese
Recipe by Tucker Shaw. Takes about 20 minutes of prep, plus about 30 minutes in the oven. Start at six o’clock, eat at seven. Serves 4-6.
Ingredients
- 3/4 pound dried, short pasta (elbows are best)
- Generous pinch salt
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 can (about 12 ounces) evaporated milk at room temperature
- 1 bay leaf
- 1/2 small onion, diced
- 2 1/2 cups grated cheese (or combination of cheeses) of your choice
- 1 cup bread crumbs, mixed with 2 tablespoons melted butter
Directions
Begin your macaroni and cheese one hour before you plan to serve it. Bring a medium saucepan of water to a high, rolling boil.
Meanwhile, liberally butter a ceramic or glass baking dish (8×8-inches is best). Lay out your ingredients: Dry pasta, butter, flour, evaporated milk, a bay leaf, diced onion, grated cheese(s) and buttery bread crumbs. Do not leave anything in the cupboard; the last thing you want to do is go searching for a bay leaf when you’re supposed to be watching your bechamel.
Turn on the oven to 350 degrees.
Set a second medium saucepan over a medium flame and melt the butter until just short of bubbling. Vigorously whisk in the flour and cook, whisking constantly, for 2-3 minutes, until it just begins to go faintly brown.
Quickly now, add the milk and stir. Next, add the bay leaf and diced onion. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring every minute or two. Bring just to the boiling point, but do not let it bubble. Reduce heat if necessary.
Meanwhile, your pasta water is boiling. Add the pasta and cook for about 9 minutes, until just short of done. The pasta will finish softening in the oven. Drain, but do not rinse.
While your pasta drains, drop the heat under your bechamel to medium-low and stir in about three-quarters of the cheese and stir until melted. If you are using more than one kind of cheese, stir until the sauce is a uniform color and texture.
Off goes the heat, out comes the bay leaf and in goes the pasta. Stir thoroughly until completely coated. If you’re adding anything to your dish, stir it in. Scoop the mixture into your well-buttered baking dish. Sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top, then the butter-soaked bread crumbs. Place into the oven without delay. Bake 25 minutes.
Peek into the oven to assess whether the top layer is sufficiently browned. If it is, take the baking dish out of the oven. If it is not, broil for 3-5 minutes until crispy brown spots begin to appear on the surface of your dish. Without crispy brown spots on top, your macaroni and cheese is incomplete.
