Growing up I hated Macaroni and Cheese. The dislike stayed with me well into my adult years. Our youngest daughter could live on Mac and Cheese, the oranger the better. Having made hundreds of batches from the box I started doing what I always do, thinking "how can I make this better? What can I do to make it so I would like it?" It dawned on me that the oneness of the flavor and the texture were the two things that I disliked. After watching a Bobby Flay throw down on mac and cheese I decided to give my own version a whirl. This is very simple to make and takes about 20 minutes start to finish. There are many options along the way where you can substitute, add or leave out ingredients. What I am presenting is how I like to make it, though depending on my audience I will add or subtract heat, types of cheese, type of pasta and cream to milk ratio.
Have fun, it's Easy Peasy!
Start by making your pasta. You can use traditional macaroni noodles, mostaccioli, large shells, small shells, I have used Orzo which gives a really creamy, almost risotto like in texture with the bits of bacon and pepper giving it texture. Depending on how you intend to serve the dish choose a pasta and prepare it at the start. Have it ready to add to the sauce.
I do not measure so you may have to play with some of the amounts to get it the way you like. This dish sets up pretty well so while it may look like you have too much sauce to pasta, if it sits for a bit the proportions tend to even out. Here we go.
Take 4-6 slices of bacon, do not separate to save time, and slice into chunks about quarter to half inch in lenth. Add to saucepan and put on medium to medium-low heat. The objective is to get the bacon to become crispy. Do not cook too fast as you will be adding additional ingredients and do not want to take bacon from crispy to crunchy. Stir from time to time to break up the pieces and also to prevent sticking.
Dice about 1 cup of onion--you can use any type of onion. Depending on your personal heat index dice an jalepeno or Anaheim chili, should be about a half to one cup. When the bacon is just getting crispy, five minutes?, add the onion and peppers.
At this point I start to add some seasoning and will add salt, pepper, some ground red pepper--maybe a half teaspoon or more--and a couple of dashes of ground nutmeg or a couple of grinds of fresh nutmeg. Feel free to add additional spices you like.
After the onions and peppers have sweated and the bacon appears to be crispy we get to the heavy action part. Have the following ingredients ready to go: flour, wine (about half cup) and cream/milk. Regarding the cream and milk, this is where you can make substitution, I have made this with about 1 cup of each and with about half cup of cream and 1 to one and a half cups of milk. The milk in our home is 2%. You can also make this with no cream but the texture of the sauce may be a bit different.
With the bacon/onion/pepper mixture still on medium heat slowly add flour. Do not drain the bacon fat, just add the flour. I use about two to three of our big soup spoons, so maybe 4 tablespoons measured. When I add flour to sauces I always put the flour through our sieve and bang the side with the spoon to sift the flour over the top of the mixture. After the top of the bacon mix is covered with flour I stir to incoporate the flour and then sift more flour on top until covered and then mix in, repeating until I have added enough flour to make it begin to thicken.
Now comes the fun part. Slowly add your wine. You will notice that the mixture immediately siezes up and becomes balls of wet flour with bacon, etc. Stir this and slowly keep adding the wine. After you have added the wine give it some stirs. It may be time to switch to your whisk if you have not done so already.
Now quickly add your cream, if you are using it, and whisk thoroughly. You will see the roux that you made begin to disolve and a sauce begin. Then add your milk and continue to whisk. Keep on the heat, whisking the mixture. Use your whisk to scrape the bottom of the pan as you go. When the mixture comes up to a slow simmer (bubbles on the side of the pan) lower the heat to low and add your cheese.
Cheese This is where you can really change the flavor of this dish. I have used a mix of fontina, parmesian and cheddar, and had a very strong flavor that kids did not like and adults did. I have used fontina, smoked gouda and cheddar for a bit more mild that kids like as well. Just cheddar. Some day I will try it with blue cheese in the mix. This is where you can have some fun and really experiment on how you make it. Keep in mind that it does not take much of a strong flavored cheese to permeate a dish.
Have ready about 2-3 cups of grated cheese. When using a couple of different cheeses I will go half cup of the "strong" cheeses and one cup of the basic cheddar (white or orange).
With your now creamy, bacony, flavorful sauce add your grated cheese and stir until all the cheese is melted and integrated. Turn off the heat.
Toss in your pasta and mix throughly. If you are using pasta with "holes" like macaroni, or even shells, give it a good stirring/folding to ensure you have all the pasta filled with the sauce.
As for serving you can pour the pasta into a baking dish, cover with grated cheese and bake at 350 for a while or toss under a broiler to get the crunchy top many like. Or simply put in a bowl and set out.
While the directions are rather lengthy, once you make this dish you will find how easy it really is to put together. As I said you can really do many variations of heat with the peppers or spices, flavors with the cheese, try adding crumbled sausage or pancetta. There is no end of variations!
And oh the cheesy, creamy, bacony, goodness you will enjoy!
