CLASSIC MACARONI AND CHEESE

For my favorite Southern comfort meal, I like to serve Classic Macaroni And Cheese with Extra Crispy Fried Chicken, Southern-Fried Okra, Southern-Style Coleslaw, and Southern Hushpuppies.

Trust me. This isn’t a low-calorie, healthy meal. It’s rich and decadent. But for special occasions or when you need to curl up on the sofas and drown your sorrows in fatty goodness, this is the meal for you!

CLASSIC MACARONI AND CHEESE

Everyone needs an easy, ‘go-to’ mac and cheese recipe. We’re all too old to open the box with the powdered cheese. Mac and cheese is the food you want after a hard day, after a break-up, or as a condolence offering. It’s also the dish you take to friends to celebrate a baby, an engagement, or to welcome new neighbors.

This recipe starts with a homemade white sauce, which is the base for the cheese sauce. It’s salty and creamy with the most luscious mouthfeel.

Then you stir in the macaroni and top the casserole with buttered bread crumbs. When it comes out of the oven you have the crunchy, salty, buttery topping covering the cheesy, creamy macaroni. It is sublime in its simplicity.

INGREDIENTS REQUIRED

• Macaroni – I like using a ridged elbow macaroni because I think it holds the sauce better, but plain elbow mac, cavatappi, or any other pasta you like works just fine.
• Whole milk
• Butter – I use salted butter
• All-purpose flour
• Dry mustard, salt, and white pepper
• Extra sharp cheddar cheese – grate your own. The pre-shredded stuff has a coating on it that will make your sauce grainy.
• Cayenne pepper – optional
• Plain bread crumbs – for extra crunch, use panko breadcrumbs

STEPS

1. Make a roux by cooking flour and butter together. This is what will thicken the sauce. It also stabilizes the sauce so it doesn’t separate while baking the macaroni and cheese in the oven.
2. Make the sauce, also called bechamel sauce, by whisking warm milk into the roux until thickened. Then you’ll whisk in the shredded cheese and stir until melted and creamy.
3. Stir in cooked macaroni and spoon the mixture into a baking dish.
4. Combine butter and bread crumbs to sprinkle over the macaroni and cheese.
5. Bake and enjoy!

TIPS

• Use warm milk when making your sauce. It will whisk into the roux easier if its warm.
• Pour the warm milk into the roux slowly and whisk it continuously. The mixture will seize and get pasty thick. Just keep pouring in the warm milk and whisking it into the flour. It will thin out and get to the consistency of heavy cream. Perfection.
• You’ve heard me say it again and again but grate your own cheese. Pre-shredded cheese = grainy sauce, never a good thing.