When you're looking for a "fancy," yet easy and comforting side dish for a dinner party or holiday meal, this macaroni and cheese will not let you down. Simple preparation combined with quality ingredients makes for a decadent, elevated-tasting macaroni and cheese that will have your guests thinking you're a pro chef! As macaroni and cheese is one of Rebecca's all-time favorite foods, she has five or six different macaroni and cheese recipes depending on the mood or occasion. This is the one she has dubbed her Fancy Macaroni & Cheese, perfect as an entertaining side along steak, barbecue, or Easter ham!
| Servings: 6-8 |
Prep: 15 minutes
|
Cook: 45 minutes |
Ingredients
Bechamel:
- 4 Cups whole milk
- 8 Tbsp. (1 stick) butter
- 1/2 Cup flour
- 1 Tbsp. Morton Kosher salt, plus more for seasoning pasta water
- Optional: dry mustard, cayenne, nutmeg, and/or fine ground black pepper
To Assemble:
- 1 Lb. elbow macaroni
- 8 oz. shredded sharp cheddar
- 3 oz. grated Pecorino Romano (or Romano or Parmesan)
- 1-2 Tbsp. melted butter or olive oil
- 2/3 Cup Panko breadcrumbs
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F
- The Bechamel: heat milk in a saucepan until just simmering. Melt butter, add flour, and whisk into a roux. Let cook for 2-3 minutes while constantly stirring, to cook out the flour flavor. Whisking constantly, slowly add milk and return pan to medium-high heat, cooking until sauce thickens and coats back of a spoon. Turn to low or off until ready to assemble.
- To Assemble: pour melted butter or olive oil into a small dish with breadcrumbs and toss to coat; set aside. Cook pasta 4-5 minutes in heavily salted water. It will be very underdone. Stir both cheeses into bechamel over low heat until smooth, then add salt and any optional seasonings. Add drained pasta. Taste for seasoning and adjust, as desired. Transfer to a buttered 5-quart serving dish, sprinkle with prepared Panko, and bake until golden brown on top, 25-30 minutes.
Rebecca's Notes
- Play around with different cheeses to your liking - these ratios of bechamel to cheese to pasta will all hold with your variations!
- Don't skip the milk warming step before creating the bechamel, as Rebecca really does think the sauce turns out smoother as a result
- Rebecca is a BIG fan of the ultra-fine black pepper in mac & cheese; fresh-cracked would be fine, but there is just something about that fine peppery stuff for her when it comes to mac & cheese
- Mac & cheese NEEDS salt to really bring out the flavor of the cheese - don't skimp! Taste as you go, and remember to make your final determination AFTER you add the pasta to the cheese sauce as your pasta will be salty from the salted pasta water, too
- Original recipe from chow.com, in a 2015 post that no longer even exists on the Internet! Good thing Rebecca wrote it down on an old-school recipe card all those years ago...