THE BEST COMFORT MAC & CHEESE
If there is one thing I have loved my entire life (food wise) it is a creamy saucy mac n cheese. More importantly it is the creamy soft cheesy white sauce that goes on top of the noodles in a traditional mac n cheese dish.
Growing up my mom has made her staple cheese sauce for many many meals. Some of my favorites include:
– homemade spaghetti topped with the golden goodness
– bacon, tomato, onion mac n cheese
– the best of all of them with the cheese sauce as its base, steak w/ peppercorn or mushroom sauce
I just love anything with that sauce on it. It is the simplest of all recipes and it is whipped up in minutes (literally).
The base is a simple roux from butter and flour, whisked with skim milk (or sometimes half & half), topped with massive amounts of shredded cheese (a blend of swiss and cheddar for this mac n cheese recipe), and sprinkled with freshly ground pepper and salt of course.
Easy, delicious, versatile, and golden. Those are the words I would use to describe this sauce. This sauce is something every one should know how to make, it is one for the books and one for the memory.
With this sauce you are unstoppable.
Okay maybe that is dramatic but this sauce is a winner. And I just wanted to tell you all.
How cute are these little cast iron skillets.
It’s like they’re saying “here have one serving of this macaroni all to yourself in one little pan”. It’s a magical serving vessel of mac n cheese.
I use this sauce for all of my mac n cheese’s in my kitchen…
and this is how you make it.
I love super saucy mac n cheese. Like suuuuuper saucy. I almost like more cheese sauce then macaroni.
[you can see all the sauce spilling over the skillets up top… oops]
THE BEST COMFORT MAC & CHEESE
Notes
Adapted from The Country Contessa
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups whole wheat elbow macaroni
- 3 1/2 tablespoons flour
- 3 1/2 tablespoons lowfat yogurt butter (or normal butter)
- 2 1/8 cups skim milk/fat free half and half
- 1 cup reduced fat shredded cheddar
- 1 cup swiss
- S&P to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Boil water for the pasta. Spray a 2 quart dish or 4 mini cast iron skillets.
- Start cooking the pasta, cook as directed. In a small pot combine butter and flour. Let the butter melt and mix with a whisk to combine into a paste. Slowly pour in half the liquid (milk and half and half). Whisk until the flour and butter roux is dissolved. Pour in the rest of the liquid and keep whisking. Let it start to bubble and heat up. Once it is bubbling and starting to get thick, add handfuls of cheese. Let it all melt and continue adding the cheese.
- Whisk until all the cheese is melted. Season with salt and peeper to taste.
- Drain pasta, pour cheese sauce over noodles, mix together. Transfer to baking dishes and bake for 15 minutes until bubbling on top.
I have this little trick, I make more sauce then noodles and I let it be extra saucy and juicy.
AND THEN I bake it less then the time requires and instead of all the cheese sauce evaporating into the oven atmosphere it only half disappears and leaves the noodles covered in golden cheese sauce.
I would call that one of the best tricks I got.
Got get yo’ sauce on.
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