I have never made macaroni cheese, anyone have a good recipe?

[MmeLindt]

Sad, I know but I have never made this before. Just seen the AIBU thread and thought that I should try it.

Who has a good, easy recipe?

Mine is just cheese sauce (white sauce with load of cheddar in it, about 100g for 1pt of sauce)
Mix this up with cooked macaroni and put more cheese on top, then grill until the top is golden.
Or if the whole dish has gone cold (prepared in advance) stick in the oven for 20 mins.

Do you know how to make white sauce?

Agree with Otherside, although I add a pinch of mustard powder to the sauce and lots of pepper to give it a bit of a kick.

Yes, I've just been skimming that AIBU thread and realised I'd forgotten the mustard powder.

I love the crushed crisps topping idea when I do pasta bake with tomato sauce. Have not tried with macaroni cheese. Dried breadcrumbs and grated cheese make it similarly crispy and it is not as fattening.

We make this at the end of the week when we only have carrots left from the veg bag.

200g of macaroni, (I prefer the quick cook type rather than the thicker ones which still has an al dente texture even when you over cook it)

Cheese Sauce:
100g Cheddar cheese (or Red Leicester) grated
30g - 50g of butter
2 tablespoons of plain flour
500ml of milk
Pinch of mustard powder (optional)

Topping:
Extra grated cheese
Sliced tomato (optional)

Boil the pasta in lots of water until ready.

Meanwhile, make the sauce.
Melt the butter in the pan. Mix the flour and mustard powder with a little bit of milk so that it forms a smooth paste, then add about half of the milk in and stir. When the butter starts to bubble, put the milk and flour mixture into the pan and stir with a whisk or a fork, I can guarantee that you won't get any lumps this way.
When the sauce starts to thicken, add the rest of the milk in and heat until it is a nice smooth consistency. Add the grated cheese in gradually and stir.

Put the pasta in a pyrex dish. Pour the cheese sauce over the pasta, stir if necessary to make sure that every bit of pasta is coated. Scatter the top with the grated cheese and arrange the sliced tomatoes over them if using.

Put in a preheated oven at gas 5 for about 25 minutes or until the cheese is golden brown.

Serve with salad of boiled veg.

Thanks all. Will try boogiewoogies's method of making the white sauce as mine always has lumps.

Not tonight though as we are invited for Thanksgiving Dinner to our American neighbours.

I always put sliced tomato, breadcrumbs and more cheese on top before it goes in the oven, makes a really lovely topping

Also if you have a hand held blender this is very handy for getting the lumps out of sauce.

crushed tortilla chips on top is really nice.

|I also raosat off any veg i have handy, like peppers, red onions, etc and mix that in before I bake it. Jalepenos, olives and artichokes are also nice. It'sd a meal in itself by the time I've added everything and doesn't need accompaniment.

Add a little grated nutmeg to the cheese sauce for flavour. Also, I add the milk a lot slower than boogie otherwise I do still get lumps. I do the butter and flour, then add jsut a splash at a time to start with, mix then add gradually mroe and more. The more slowly you do it, the easier it is to avoid lumps.

I precook the pasta too, then bung it all in the oven mainly to crisp up the top.

Couple of drops of worcester sauce in cheese sauce is lovely, and also put pinch of nutmeg in like ChopsTheDuck.

Its also nice with chopped up cooked bacon through it, or some some pancetta cokked till it's really crispy.

I think peas and sweetcorn go best with macaroni too.

But if you do all that to it, it's no longer macaroni cheese.... it's pasta bake!

that isx ture, but it is bloody ncie I started adding mroe and mroe after eating at Mac Grill in America. They do some lovely macaroni dishes.