Jer: Mac & Cheese

I hadn’t been home nor in my own kitchen for more than three weeks so when Pete asked me yesterday what I was thinking for dinner, mac & cheese popped into my head as the perfect welcome home comfort food.

There are so many variations you can make with your mac & cheese that I would urge you to focus on the three basic steps in Helen’s recipe as opposed to following the recipe too carefully. If you can learn the method you’ll find how easy it is to make this always crowd pleasing dish and anyone you make it for will love you for it.

The three steps are: 1) make a bechamel, 2) mix freshly cooked pasta into béchamel and add cheese, 3) bake in oven until top cheese has melted and then broil for the last few minutes.

Making a béchamel is really as easy as boiling the water to cook the pasta (which you should do before you begin your béchamel). Begin with good ingredients like European style butter (French butter from your favorite cheese shop is best but plugra is good and available at TJs), whole milk (there is too much water in lower fat milks and this dish really is not about counting calories), and freshly grated pepper and nutmeg. And while cooking the béchamel just be careful about your temperature as you want your butter slightly browned and not burned. If you burn your butter you really ought to clean out your pan and start over.

Add your butter to the pan and just as it begins to foam and turn a soft brown sprinkle your flour over the butter. Stir and mix for about two minutes so that the flour cooks a bit (this will allow your béchamel to have a more developed flavor as opposed to a chalky or floury taste). It should look a little foamy and the color should be just slightly warm. I prefer Wondra when making bechamel.

Warm your milk in another pan or in the microwave (warm don’t boil as you don't want a coating to develop on the top layer of the milk) and then with the pan off the flame stream the milk into the butter/flour mixture while stirring. Bring it back to a medium flame and stir until the sauce begins to thicken. I usually start with half the milk and gradually add the milk as the sauce thickens up.

Begin flavoring your béchamel with salt, freshly grated pepper and freshly grated nutmeg. Add the rest of your milk while whisking until you have a soft and creamy sauce. Taste and adjust your seasonings.

Add your freshly cooked pasta directly to your béchamel and stir to coat the pasta. Elbow macaroni is great but so is any type of pasta with grooves and curves as anything with curl will help hold onto the cheese and béchamel. I don’t like using penne for mac & cheese as I find it makes a dish that is too dry. Be judicious with how much of your cooked pasta you add to your bechamel and don't feel like you need to use all of your pasta (if you use too much pasta relative to the amount of sauce you have your mac & cheese will be dry). Also you really ought to try timing it so that your pasta goes from the water to the strainer to the bechamel within seconds. You want your pasta perfectly cooked and very hot when you add it to the sauce so that the sauce attaches to the pasta nicely. Don't precook your pasta and let it sit in your strainer getting gooey and mushy.

Once coated with your béchamel add any cheese you want. Monterey jack is good, but so is a mixture of any grateable cheese with nice flavor like Italian fontina, gruyere, and parmeseanno reggiano. I don’t like using only gruyere as I find it gets too oily but I love the bite it gives. I don’t like using only parmesan because I don’t think it’s creamy enough. I prefer white cheese mac & cheese but if I’m cooking for children I’ll almost always use grated sharp cheddar cut with some parmesean. Once you've added your cheese, taste and adjust for salt.

If you want to add pork you should add it in now. Cubed ham is fine but I really like a nice smoky proscuitto ripped or sliced into smaller pieces. Serrano is also nice. If I’m cooking for men (especially my P) I almost never add pork as I find they prefer the classic dish over any fancier variation.

Choose a baking dish that is wider than it is deep as a shallower layer of your mac & cheese will allow for more of it to be coated with nice crunchy topping (which I find most people prefer). Top with your bread crumbs, pads of butter, freshly ground pepper and a healthy topping of more grated cheese. Bake just until the cheese melts on top (don’t overbake as you’ll dry out your dish) and then when ready to bring to the table broil until the top browns just as you like it.

I roasted some aspargus alongside the mac & cheese in the oven but I also like serving this dish with a nice simple salad. Pete loved it so much he asked if the dish could go into the weekly rotation. The true test of a perfect comfort food!