4 stars (out of 5 - one of my favourites!)
Ingredients (similar sauce to the crepes):
250g short cut macaroni (I did about 1/3 of a 900g box)
4 tbsp butter or margarine; another 1 tbsp to cook
4 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp pepper
2 cups milk
1 cup shredded cheese of your choice(maybe more!)*
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese*
2 leeks (optional - great to cook in white wine)*
60g breadcrumbs (to coat)
{Note. There are two ways that I like to "jazz" up my mac and cheese. First, I like to use very strong cheeses. For the mac and cheese below, I used about 1-1.5 cups old cheddar, and about 1/2 cup of Morbier (a very strong, old cheese). The original recipe suggested Fontina and mozzarella. The second way is to add leeks, and I did this instead of the Parmesan cheese. See Stage 7 below for some suggestions about cooking the leeks in white wine.}
1. First I put the water on for the macaroni to boil.
2. SB and I then started the cheese sauce by first melting the butter in a saucepan.
3. We then added the flour, stirring constantly.
4. Finally, we gradually added the milk, stirring constantly.
5. As the sauce was being made, I sliced up the leeks into rounds...
6. ... and melted some butter in a frying pan.
7. I then added the leeks, and cooked them until they were tender (and separating). (We realized afterwards that it would have been amazing to cook the leeks in white wine like we usually do. You just add about a cup of wine to the pan, and cook until it evaporates. Next time!).
8. We then added the cheese to the cheese sauce...
9. ...and stirred until smooth.
10. We then combined the leeks with most of the pasta (I like to use about 3/4 of the pasta to start, and then add the remainder in as I stir in the sauce - just to make sure there is enough sauce!) in another large saucepan (I like to use a large saucepan so that I don't have to worry about spilling everywhere when I stir it up).
11. We poured in the sauce, and stirred it well.
12. We then poured the mixture into a greased casserole dish (the shallower, the better).
13. We coated the mac & cheese with bread crumbs, and popped it in the oven for 35-40 minutes at 350F.
14. It turned out great!
One final tip that I have is to taste the sauce before you add it. Ours was very good, but it needed a tiny bit more salt.