No matter what you do to macaroni and cheese, it’s always pretty darn good. It can be the plainest dish imaginable, or dolled up with lobster meat and truffle oil, but the slippery noodles and creamy base are always a pleasurable meal.
At a time when cozy, filling food is at the top of everyone’s list of requests, macaroni and cheese–as a side dish or a meal–warms the body and soul better than the wooliest sweater.
But few people are content to stick to what Mom used to make. Many cooks add their own touches, with interesting cheeses, savory bread crumbs, maybe some vegetables or meat. Wherever you turn, it seems someone is giving mac ‘n’ cheese a makeover.
You’ll see it in the fancy Cheddar that dresses the noodles at Rushmore. You’ll taste it in the dish laced with slow-cooked, shredded pork on the menu at Twelve 12. MOD.’s macaroni and cheese made the pages of Food & Wine magazine. Fox & Obel Food Market cuts its mac into diamonds and triangles, making individual portions that customers can tote home.
The great variety of American and imported artisan cheeses make the opportunities even richer, allowing cooks to layer flavors using everything from sharp Cheddars to mellow goat cheeses.
“I find that unless one uses cheese with strong character, the bechamel (white sauce) gives the dish a blandness that is all too common in macaroni and cheese,” said Twelve 12 chef David Shea.
If the potential of this classic hasn’t yet been fully explored, along comes the recent release of the cookbook, “Macaroni & Cheese: 52 Recipes, from Simple to Sublime,” by Joan Schwartz (Villard $15.95). The New York author turned to well-known chefs for their ideas and found that basic isn’t always better.
“You turn them loose on a classic dish and each one comes up with something different,” Schwartz said.
The recipes range from a three-cheese macaroni made with Wisconsin Asiago and a Greek-style dish with feta cheese and spinach to a New England macaroni and cheese with oysters and pork sausage and a version flavored with salsa from Chicago chef Rick Bayless. “It is such a forgiving dish to prepare,” Schwartz said. “I wanted to give people a starting point and help them ‘think outside the box,’ ” she said, referring to America’s best-known macaroni and cheese, the one from Kraft (see accompanying story).
Make it as inventive or humble as you choose; it will always be a great dish. “It defines comfort food,” Schwartz said. “It smells good, it looks good. It takes you back to a time when you were taken care of and nourished. And it is comforting and soothing to cook.”
Get that happy feeling back by making one of the recipes here, or challenge yourself by dressing up a family favorite. No one will leave the table dissatisfied. Unless, of course, you didn’t make enough for leftovers.
Using your noodle (and other ingredients)
Classic macaroni and cheese–at least the cafeteria kind–calls for elbow pasta, but with so many other shapes available you might as well experiment.
– What you are looking for is something twisty, curvy or ridged that will help the sauce grip the noodles. Spirals such as rotini or fusilli are nice, as are bowtie (or butterfly) shapes called farfalle. Quill-shaped penne, particularly with ridged sides, lets the sauce get into the center, as do other hollow pastas. Shell shapes are another good idea. Avoid really tiny pastas, which tend to get lost in the sauce.
– For the creamy macaroni and cheese base, feel free to build on a basic white sauce, or bechamel. Make it by cooking 2 tablespoons each of butter and flour over low heat for about 3 minutes, then stir in 1 cup milk, cooking until it thickens. Season to taste with salt, black or ground red pepper, nutmeg, or whatever suits. Add the cheese of your choice in batches, stirring until well blended. Don’t let the sauce get too hot or the cheese may clump.
– Once the pasta and sauce are assembled, you can’t call it a casserole without some sort of topping. Dried bread crumbs will do, but the commercial kind are often too finely ground. Better bets are fresh bread crumbs that have been toasted in the oven or in a pan with a little butter.
Another good choice is panko. These very dry, coarse Japanese bread crumbs stand up beautifully to moisture and deliver real crunch. Look for panko in Asian food markets, specialty stores and natural foods stores.
Finally, some people wouldn’t dream of topping their macaroni and cheese with anything other than cracker crumbs, the more buttery, the better.
It’s your choice. Just remember that this is fun food, so feel free to play around while cooking.
— Kristin Eddy
A big blue world
It may be fine to brainstorm different ways to give macaroni and cheese an adult edge. But when many consumers get down to it, what they eat most often are the orange noodles out of the blue box.
That would be Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, as if you didn’t know.
The boil-and-stir meal may not have homemade flourishes, but generations of little kids, college students and budget-conscious adults have eaten so much of it over the years that it has become a staple. More than 1 million boxes are sold every day.
This year, the product achieved senior status, having its 65th anniversary. It was introduced to the public in 1937 for 19 cents a box. During World War II, shoppers bought around 50 million boxes of the stuff, according to Kraft, because you could get two with one ration stamp.
A 5 1/2-ounce box today costs around $1.10 and the brand has competition from other companies. But when we hear people say they are big mac ‘n’ cheese eaters, we know where a lot of it comes from. People give themselves away with those little dots of orange sauce at the corners of their mouths.
— K.E.
Ultimate macaroni and cheese
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 18 minutes
Yield: 8 servings
In this stovetop preparation, chef Michael Dean Hazen of Rushmore restaurant in Chicago prefers sharp white Cheddar cheese from Grafton Village, Vt., available at specialty stores such as Sam’s Wine & Spirits and Fox & Obel Food Market.
1 package (1 pound) elbow macaroni
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 cup white bread crumbs
2 cups whipping cream
1/8 teaspoon dry mustard
1 pound sharp white Cheddar cheese, shredded
1/4 teaspoon each or to taste: kosher salt, freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1. Heat a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Cook pasta until al dente, 10-12 minutes; drain. Meanwhile, heat butter in small saucepan. Add bread crumbs; cook, stirring, until lightly browned, about 2 minutes. Set aside.
2. Combine macaroni, cream and mustard in a large saucepan; cook over medium heat until hot, 3 minutes. Add cheese; stir to melt. Add salt and pepper. Place macaroni in serving bowls. Sprinkle with reserved bread crumbs and chopped parsley.
Nutrition information per serving:
680 calories, 58% calories from fat, 44 g fat, 27 g saturated fat, 145 mg cholesterol, 465 mg sodium, 49 g carbohydrate, 23 g protein, 2.2 g fiber
Macaroni and cheese wedges
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 16 minutes
Chilling time: 3 hours
Yield: 6 servings
– The beauty of this recipe, from Fox & Obel chef Peter Repak, is that the macaroni and cheese can be made ahead, chilled, then cut into fun-sized individual shapes. They can be eaten cool or at room temperature or heated in the microwave. (They will collapse when reheated.) Kids will enjoy this one.
Sauce:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 tablespoons flour
1 quart milk
1 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Pasta:
1 package (1 pound) penne or gemelli pasta
3 cups shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon each: kosher salt, ground white pepper
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups panko (Japanese bread crumbs) or fresh bread crumbs
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
1. For the sauce, melt butter in a large sauce-pan. Add flour; cook 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Whisk in milk. Heat to boil; simmer, stirring constantly, 5 minutes. Add salt and black pepper to taste. Set aside; keep warm.
2. Cook pasta in salted boiling water until al dente, about 7 minutes. Drain. Spread pasta on wax paper-lined cookie sheets. Cool 5 minutes.
3. Fold Cheddar, 1/4 cup of the Parmesan cheese, salt and white pepper into the sauce. The cheese should not fully melt. Mix pasta into cheese mixture. Pack into a plastic-wrap-lined 8-inch-square baking pan. Chill until firm, 3 hours or overnight.
4. Melt butter in a small skillet. Add bread crumbs; toast until golden, 4 minutes. Mix with parsley and remaining Parmesan cheese. Pack onto the top of the macaroni.
5. Cut macaroni and cheese into desired shapes, such as triangles. Serve at room temperature or heat in microwave, 1- 1 1/2 minutes on medium high, or until melted and warm.
Nutrition information per serving:
820 calories, 43% calories from fat, 39g fat, 23 g saturated fat, 115 mg cholesterol, 1,525 mg sodium, 81 g carbohydrate, 35 g protein, 3.3 g fiber
Macaroni and cheese with bacon and tomato
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 55 minutes
Yield: 8 servings
This recipe, developed by Mark Graham in the Tribune test kitchen, adds both color (from the tomatoes) and ure (crisp bits of bacon) to a macaroni and cheese base. You can experiment with other versions by stirring in chopped ham or chicken along with your favorite vegetables.
3/4 cup bread crumbs
1 package (1 pound) cavatappi or penne pasta
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 tablespoons flour
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1 quart milk
1/2 teaspoon each, or to taste: salt, freshly ground pepper
1/2 pound each, shredded: Gruyere cheese, processed cheese (such as Velveeta)
1 pound bacon, cooked, crumbled
3 ripe plum tomatoes, diced
3 tablespoons olive oil
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Generously butter a 1 1/2-quart baking dish. Add 1/4 cup of the bread crumbs; shake to coat dish evenly. Heat large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook pasta until al dente, about 7 minutes. Drain. Place in large bowl.
2. Melt butter in large saucepan. Whisk in flour; cook, stirring, 2 minutes. Add nutmeg; cook 1 minute. Whisk in milk all at once. Heat to boil; simmer, stirring, 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat; stir in cheeses until melted.
3. Add sauce to pasta, mix well. Spoon 1/2 of the mixture into prepared baking dish. Add tomatoes and bacon in an even layer. Top with remaining macaroni mixture. Combine 1/2 cup of the remaining bread crumbs with olive oil in small bowl. Sprinkle over macaroni. Bake until golden and bubbly, 45 minutes.
Nutrition information per serving:
690 calories, 50% calories from fat, 38 g fat, 18 g saturated fat, 90 mg cholesterol, 1,075 mg sodium, 56 g carbohydrate, 31 g protein, 2.3 g fiber
Macaroni with Wisconsin Asiago
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour, 10 minutes
Yield: 8 servings
This recipe, adapted from “Macaroni and Cheese,” by Joan Schwartz, comes from chef Matthew Kenney of Canteen restaurant in New York. Asiago, a semi-firm cheese with a slight bite, can be found at stores with large cheese selections, such as Whole Foods and Treasure Island.
1 package (1 pound) rotini or cavatelli pasta
7 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup flour
1 1/2 cups milk
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
1/8 teaspoon each: ground red pepper, hot red pepper sauce
1/2 pound Wisconsin Asiago cheese, grated
6 ounces Parmesan cheese, grated
4 ounces sharp white Cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1/3 cup minced fresh chives
1 cup panko (Japanese bread crumbs) or fresh bread crumbs, toasted
1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Heat a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Cook pasta until al dente, 10-12 minutes. Drain; cool. Place in a large bowl.
2. Melt 5 tablespoons of the butter in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Add flour; cook, stirring, 3 minutes. Whisk in milk; raise heat to high. Heat to a boil; reduce heat to medium. Cook, stirring occasionally, until thickened, 6 minutes. Add Worcestershire sauce, mustard, salt, red pepper and hot pepper sauce.
3. Pour sauce over pasta; mix. Add Asiago, 1 cup of the Parmesan cheese, Cheddar, parsley and chives; toss to mix. Pour into a buttered 2 1/2-quart baking dish. Mix bread crumbs with remaining Parmesan cheese in small bowl. Melt remaining 2 tablespoons butter in small saucepan; pour over bread crumbs. Toss to mix; sprinkle over pasta. Bake until crumbs are lightly browned and sauce is bubbling, 40-50 minutes.
Nutrition information per serving:
635 calories, 46% calories from fat, 32g fat, 20 g saturated fat, 90 mg cholesterol, 795 mg sodium, 55 g carbohydrate, 31 g protein, 2.3 g fiber
