Simple Mac & Cheese
For years I tried to top the mac & cheesethat my dad makes. I tried by making the traditional
Mornay sauce with a butter and flour rouxmixed with milk and then Gruyère and all
kinds of fancy cheese. But it never came outas good as Dad’s, which uses no roux at
all and is instead built upon processed Americancheese.
Start by putting enough water on the boilfor a pound of pasta, and then put another
big pan on medium heat.
“That’s one quart of whole milk.”
Then comes the cheese. A whole 16-ounce packageof Kraft Deli Deluxe American Cheese. This
is different from Kraft Singles. It containsenough real Cheddar or Colby cheese for the
U.S. government to consider it “cheese.”Other types have to be labeled as “cheese
product.”
“We start tearing it into pieces, so thatit melts relatively quickly and evenly.”
I think it’s probably the emulsifiers inthis processed cheese that make the recipe
work without the use of roux as a thickeneror binder, and the whole thing comes out much
smoother as a result.
“Then we take a little black pepper.”
And no salt. There’s plenty of salt in thatcheese. But you could totally add some more
herbs and spices at this stage if you wanted.
“And it will slowly melt, over a periodof about five to 10 minutes.”
Oh, and we forgot the butter. Anywhere betweena half and whole stick of butter goes in and
just melts with the cheese. Keep stirringit.
Meanwhile, get yourself a pound of large pastashells or honestly whatever shape you want,
salt your boiling water and dump in the pasta.Par-boil it for five minutes, no more, or
they’ll be mushy after they bake.
You can see that sauce is nice and smoothnow. Get yourself a baking dish that’s at
least 2.5 quarts and lube it up. Drain yourpasta, then it’s time to assemble. Pasta
goes into the dish, pour in the sauce, stirit around a little bit. It should look too
soupy at this stage. If it doesn’t, it’sgonna be dry and gloppy after it bakes.
Covering it up for the first part of bakingwill help the whole thing cook at little bit
more evenly if you’re into that. I actuallydon’t cover it because I want the top super
dry and crispy, but you do you.
In the oven it goes at 350 Fahrenheit for45 minutes covered.
Now, if you’re thinking, “This is a recipean 8-year-old could do,” you’re right.
Grandma Ragusea started my dad making thisby himself when he was 8 while everybody was
at work on Fridays, because like all goodCatholics, they wouldn’t eat meat that night.
After 45 minutes, pull it out and take thecover off, then give it another half hour
or so until the top layer of cheese is brown.If it’s not browning enough to your liking,
you could always flip on the broiler at thevery end.
You could eat some brown bits off the toplike a dirty thief right now, but you gotta
let the whole thing rest for like a half hourbefore you spoon it out, otherwise the sauce
will just run out all over the plate. I liketo eat it with some salad, often on the same
forkful. Acidic crunch is a great contrastwith soft richness.
It might not look fancy, but for an unbiasedopinion on the taste, here’s Lauren.
“I love macaroni and cheese, and I’vealways tried to make macaroni and cheese at
home, and it’s always been trash, and thisis delicious.”
Yep. The flavor is stronger and the texturefar smoother than mac and cheese made with
“real” cheese. Give it a chance. Thismay be that childhood food memory you’ve
been chasing and never been able to get back.
My dad's recipe; serves 6-8 1 lb dried pasta shells 1 quart milk 1 lb Kraft Deli Deluxe American Cheese 1/2 to 1 stick butter salt pepper Start the oven preheating to 350 F and put a pot of water on the boil for the pasta. In another pot, warm the milk on medium heat. Tear the slices of cheese into the milk, put in the butter, grind in some pepper, and stir until everything is melted and combined. Salt the pasta water and par-boil the shells for five minutes. Oil or spray a baking dish that holds at least 2.5 quarts. Pour in the drained pasta and then the cheese sauce. Stir to combine. Cover the dish and bake for 45 minutes. Uncover and bake for an additional 30 minutes until brown on top. If you want it more brown, turn on the broiler at the very end. Let rest 30 min before scooping it out. MY COOKING PHILOSOPHY: I don't like weighing or measuring things if I don't have to, and I don't like to be constantly checking a recipe as I cook. I don't care that volume is a bad way of measuring things — it's usually easier. I like for a recipe to get me in the ballpark, and then I like to eyeball and improvise the rest. If you're like me, my goal with these videos is to give you a sense of how the food should look and feel as you're cooking it, rather than give you a refined formula to reproduce.