Macaroni and Cheese

Macaroni and cheese also known as mac and cheese, cheese macaroni, macaroni pie and macaroni cheese is a dish I am sure we all grew up with and have had different versions of! Where to categorise this dish became a bit of a problem, especially as to the origin. Well, obviously we can say it started life in Italy. Pasta and cheese going hand in hand makes total sense. Now the North Americans would claim it as their own, but where did they get it from? I grew up with this in the UK and it was a regular on our table. Of course to the African Americans this dish is pure and simple Soul Food! To many Canadians Mac and Cheese comes in a box and is cooked in a pot on a stove top using an awful bright orange cheese powder!

Pasta and cheese casseroles have been recorded in cookbooks as early as the 14th century and came from Italy using pasta and parmesan, a cheese and pasta casserole known as makerouns was recorded in the famous medieval English cookbook, the Forme of Cury, written also in the 1400’s. The first modern recipe for the dish was included in cookery writer Elizabeth Raffald’s 1769 book The Experienced English Housekeeper. Raffald’s recipe is for a béchamel sauce with cheddar cheese which is the recipe I use to this day!

I love macaroni cheese and love it however it comes especially spicy, but this is the recipe without the heat that my young boys enjoy!

Serves 4

Ingredients:

  400g macaroni or other tube type pasta
  250g strong cheese such as a Cheddar
  500ml milk
  2 tbsps butter
  2 tbsps flour
  1 tsp mustard powder
  1/2 tsp nutmeg
  Salt and pepper to season

Preparation method:

Bring a large pot of water to the boil and add salt and the dried pasta and boil until the pasta is al-dente. You want the pasta fairly hard as it will be baked with the cheese sauce.

Next up is the béchamel or white sauce. Here I am not going to worry about the onion and cloves so we will just melt the butter in the pot then stir in the flour. Mix until it is a nice paste and then slowly add the milk. You can warm the milk first or pour it in cold, really it doesn’t make that much of a difference. Okay so you are slowly mixing in the milk and bringing to a slow boil. It will start to thicken so now add the mustard powder and most of the cheese and you can take off the heat and it should be fairly thick by now. Taste and then season with the salt and pepper and add the nutmeg.

Drain the pasta and place in a casserole dish, then pour over the sauce and give it a good stir to mix the sauce in otherwise you will have clumps of macaroni that aren’t gooey with sauce. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top and bake in the oven 220ºC/425ºF/gas 7 for about 30 minutes or until you see the baked cheese on top is a nice golden brown.

Sometimes I will slice tomato and bake that on top with a few rashers of bacon.

Serve and enjoy!