Serves a Crowd

Classic Mac and Cheese

October 18, 2013
5
1 Ratings
Photo by Christopher Hirsheimer and Melissa Hamilton
  • Serves 4
Author Notes

This version is creamy and simple, so the flavor of your cheese comes through. Choose a good sharp Cheddar as a base; you need 16 oz/455 g of cheese plus the Parmesan. You can use all Cheddar or a combination of half Cheddar and half ends and bits. Some folks add parsley or other herbs before baking (as shown in photo). Peggy and I like to make it without herbs. —Sue Conley & Peggy Smith

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • 2 tablespoons Unsalted butter
  • 2 tablespoons All-purpose flour
  • 2 1/2 cups Whole milk
  • 3/4 cup Heavy cream
  • 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
  • 1 pound Grating cheese
  • 1/4 teaspoon Sea salt
  • Freshly ground pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon Hot Sauce
  • 12 ounces Pasta (elbow or corkscrew)
  • 1 1/2 cups Panko or fresh bread crumbs
  • 3 tablespoons Grated Parmesan or other cheese
Directions
  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F/200°C/gas 6. Place a rack in the bottom third of the oven, and butter a 3 qt/2.8-L baking dish. Set a large pot of unsalted water over high heat.
  2. While the water heats, melt the butter in a large saucepan. When the butter has finished foaming, stir in the flour, whisking until the flour takes on a little color, about 3 minutes. Take the pan off the heat and pour in the milk slowly, while whisking continuously. Return the pan to medium heat. Stir until the mixture begins to thicken (about 5 minutes) and then take the pan off the heat again; stir in the cream, mustard, and three-fourths of the cheese. Stir in the salt, a few grinds of pepper, and the hot sauce. Set the sauce aside.
  3. Cook the pasta just until al dente. Drain (don’t rinse) and quickly stir the pasta into the cheese sauce, then pour into the prepared pan, scraping all the cheese sauce into the dish. Sprinkle the remaining grated cheese over the pasta. Sprinkle the panko over the cheese, and sprinkle the Parmesan on top of that.
  4. Bake until the mixture is bubbling on the edges and showing some golden brown color on top, 25 to 35 minutes. Let the dish cool for at least 10 minutes before serving.

See what other Food52ers are saying.

  • Jane Ferrante
    Jane Ferrante
  • helen
    helen
  • becky collins
    becky collins
  • Barbara Mohrle
    Barbara Mohrle
Cowgirl Creamery launched in 1997, but our story began well before then. We met freshman year at the University of Tennessee where, little did we know, a lifelong friendship and infatuation with food would ensue. In 1976 our journey westward began. Once arriving in the Bay Area, we became involved in the burgeoning food movement at Chez Panisse and Bette's Oceanview Diner, both in Berkeley, CA. By the early 1990s, we were ready for a new challenge when we decided to launch Tomales Bay Foods, a marketing vehicle to help West Marin's farms and dairies get their delicious products into the hands of the Bay Area's finest chefs. From there, we decided to make our own cheese using the milk from neighboring Straus Family Creamery. Two decades, two creameries, four retail stores, and two thousand tons of cheese later, we still love what we do and have decided to bring our stories and recipes (dishes that use cheese not how to make cheese) to you in our first cookbook, Cowgirl Creamery Cooks.

5 Reviews

helen September 25, 2017
I used oat milk in this recipe as it was all I had in the fridge, skipped the cream and parmesan, and used less cheese, it was still delicious. Added some chopped parsley under the panko as the picture has some hidden green.
 
becky C. February 16, 2016
what is green in the photo?? it drives me crazy when the recipe/ingredients are incomplete!!
 
Jane F. October 30, 2013
One word. Lobster.
 
Barbara M. October 30, 2013
Try adding chopped broccoli and roasted red bell pepper or pimientos, for color.
 
Jennifer C. October 24, 2013
I love bacon in Mac and cheese. Or sun dried tomatoes. Or my fingers. Lol