When New Years Eve rolled around last week, I wasn’t feeling terribly hot. I had been invited out to a few celebrations, but nothing sounded more attractive than staying home. Had I the foresight and money, I would have probably secured a ticket to one of the dozen awesome events going on in Los Angeles, but I didn’t and wanted to save my pennies for SRS BSNS since I don’t have too many to rub together as it is.
My friend Steffie Love, who had to work in the morning, didn’t want me to be alone, since we had planned to spend NYE together regardless of plans and decided to keep me company. I already had a bottle of champagne chilling in the fridge and half of the fixin’s to make baked macaroni and cheese – something I had mentioned in passing but that Steffie wanted to experiment with.
I couldn’t find a recipe that I was 100% satisfied happy with, so I created my own and used several recipes to get an idea of how baked mac ‘n’ cheese works. This was my first trial run and I think I did pretty well, but please read the notes at the end.
Ingredients
1 bag of elbow pasta/macaroni
2 cups milk
3 tablespoon all-purpose unbleached flour
4 tablespoons of butter (1/2 stick)
1 package baby bella mushrooms, stems removed, caps sliced
1/4th cup dry vermouth
dried mustard – to taste
sea salt – to taste
black pepper – to taste
Shredded Havarti cheese
Shredded Parmesan cheese
Shredded sharp white cheddar cheese
(Cheese all together came to approx. 6 cups)
Finely shredded breadcrumbs (I used Trader Joe’s brand. Make your own, use Panko, whatever)
Step by Step
Preheat oven 350 degrees F
Spray/grease baking dish (I used my 9×13 Pyrex dish)
Cook the pasta and set aside, keeping warm
Shred all of your cheese, combine it then divide 40% to one bowl, 60% to another
Remove stems from mushrooms and slice caps
Cheese, combined but divided and mushrooms ready to be sauteed
Saute mushrooms in vermouth until they are a bit shrunken & most of the liquid has evaporated. Drain, set aside.
Vermouth will add an extra zing! to the mushroom flavor
In a sauce pan/pot, melt butter and add milk over medium heat
Gradually add cheese, stirring constantly as it melts
S-l-o-w-l-y add flour, stirring so it incorporates and thickens
Add seasoning to taste
Cheese sauce
In a very large bowl, add macaroni, mushrooms and cheese sauce. Fold over mixture until well incorporated and all macaroni is covered with sauce. Add all but one handful of remaining cheese to bowl
I used a large popcorn bowl to mix it all together
Transfer mixture to baking dish, spreading out an even layer
Artistic mac ‘n’ cheese angle kinda makes me dizzy
Top with remaining handful of cheese, then sprinkle with bread crumbs
Before…
Bake uncovered (unless your oven runs super hot) for 35 minutes, until bubbly and golden on top
…After!
NOTES:
- When Steffie Love and I initially tasted the dish, we felt that it could have easily used a wee bit more sauce. It was fine the way it came out, but our personal preference said add more sauce next time. The reason why I capped it off where I did was because I was fearful of having too much sauce and the whole dish going soupy and soggy.
- For additional sauce, I say have more cheese and milk handy – and flour just in case it needs thickening. Probably a 3/4th-1 cup worth of more sauce and a handful more cheese to add as-is.
- You can use just about any combo of cheese you like; I happened to have Havarti and Parmesan handy. For more decadent, creamier mac ‘n’ cheese I suggest using: Havarti, Brie, Gruyere, and anything that says double cream. For more traditional flavors I’d combine: Sharp white cheddar, mozzarella, Swiss/Jarlsberg, Edam, Jack, Romano, Parmesan, Asiago. For a robust flavor add smoked Gouda or any kind of stinky, delicious blue cheese like Gorgonzola, Roquefort, and my personal favorite, Stilton.
- Other veggies to add in mac ‘n’ cheese: asparagus tips, broccoli, and peas.
- Other seasoning: Cumin, ground red pepper, red pepper flakes, herbs de Province, ground sage, thyme, garlic powder
