Creamy Mac ‘n Cheese

Written by Published on in Casserole, Pasta

Velvety white sauce…yum!

Ingredients

  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 c Panko breadcrumbs
  • 2 lg garlic cloves, minced
  • 1/2 c finely grated  parmessan cheese, fresh is best
  • 1 tbsp dried green onion or chives
  • 1 tsp sea salt or celery salt
  • 2 c good quality dried pasta, can be elbow macaroni or twisted (holds more sauce)
  • 1/2 c butter
  • 1/2 c flour
  • 1 tsp dried mustard
  • 1 tbsp salt (not a typo…pasta needs salt)
  • 1 tsp pepper
  • 3 c 35% cream
  • 2 c homogenized milk
  • 1 c grated sharp white cheddar cheese (Balderson’s), OR 1/2 cheddar and 1/2 mozarella
  • 1/2 c goat cheese (small package 113 g)
  • to sauce you can consider adding 1 bay leaf, 1 tsp tarragon, 1/4 c white wine, 1/4 c saute’d white onion

Directions

  1. Preheat Oven to 400
  2. Butter shallow casserole dish
  3. Make breadcrumb topping by combining butter and olive oil in small sauce pan on medium heat.  Wait until butter stops foaming.
  4. Add Panko breadcrumbs.  Stir until well coated.
  5. Add garlic, chives, salt and pepper.
  6. Stir breadcrumbs until they have absorbed all the butter and are starting to turn a little bit brown.
  7. Remove from heat and cool.
  8. When crumbs are cool, add parmessan cheese.  Set aside.
  9. In a large pot, fill 3/4 with cold water and set on high heat to boil.
  10. Add pasta to water, add 2 tsp salt.  Stir to separate pasta.
  11. Bring to a boil and simmer until pasta is just softened.  About 6 min.  Pasta will finish cooking with sauce in the oven.
  12. Drain pasta and cover with tea towel to keep warm.
  13. Make sauce while pasta water is heating by melting butter in large saucepan on medium heat.
  14. Add flour and mustard and stir to make a roux.  Cook a minute or two.
  15. Reduce heat.  Add 2 c cream in small quantities stirring to remove lumps.  Use a whisk.
  16. Add milk and continue stirring ensuring lumps are removed.
  17. Add goat cheese and stir until all melted.
  18. Add last 1 c of cream.
  19. Add cheddar / moza cheese in small quantities stirring until melted before adding more.
  20. Increase heat to medium and whisk sauce for 5 min or until sauce starts to bubble and thickens.  Remove from heat when bubbles start to break surface.  Do not simmer.
  21. Make sure pasta is warm before adding sauce.  Combine pasta with sauce, about 2 c cooked pasta to 1 c sauce.
  22. Place is shallow buttered casserole dish. Sauce should just cover the top of the pasta.  You can sprinkle smoked paprika on top if you wish or sauted’ onion.
  23. Sprinkle breadcrumbs on top.  Breadcrumbs should be fairly thick.
  24. Put in oven for 15 min.  Sauce won’t necessarily bubble.
  25. Turn oven to broil and cook until breadcrumbs are lightly browned, 1 -2 min.
  26. Enjoy!



Thanks to 3 different Mac ‘n Cheese recipes combined !

Leave a Comment