7-8 oz pasta (2 cups elbow macaroni or 3 cups shells)
1/4 c. butter or margarine
1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. ground mustard
1/4 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 c. milk
2 c. shredded cheese ~ 8oz. (sharp Cheddar, cheddar jack, etc. anything with flavor)
1. Heat oven to 350*.
2. Cook macaroni as directed on package.
3. While macaroni is cooking, melt butter in 3-qt saucepan over low heat. Stir in flour, salt, pepper, mustard and Worcestershire sauce. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is smooth and bubbly; remove from heat. Stir in milk. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stire 1 minute; remove from heat. Stir in cheese until melted.
4. Drain macaroni. Gently stir macaroni into cheese sauce. Pour into ungreased 2-quart casserole dish. Bake uncovered 20 to 25 minutes or until bubbly.
Variations & Carrie's notes:
I found a recipe from Rachel Ray once that I tried and loved for Mac & Cheese. You can find that original recipe here. She used some other flavors we love such as Dijon mustard, paprika, and cayenne and her recipe serves 6. One of my favorite variations for Mac & Cheese is a combination of this one and the one above. So try this:
for the spices use:
1/2 tsp salt
1/8-1/4 tsp black pepper
1/8-1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp ground mustard or 1-2 tsp Dijon/spicy mustard
When you are in a hurry, you can do like Rachel Ray and omit the oven baking part. While the crust on top is super good and the sauce does thicken a bit, it is definitely not a necessary step.
Yummy. :)
6 comments:
okay. i use the variation recipe. but i think i decided i like it better without paprika. also, i think next time i will do the full recipe, rather than half. that will be about 4 servings for us, which is perfect. this recipe is seriously yummy! sometimes i get a stomach ache though... maybe i'm still occasionally lactose intolerant? :-)
i did my regular combination variation yesterday but i usually use a mild cheese. for the first time i used pepper jack like the recipe SAYS to! (i actually did 1 cup pepper jack, 1 cup cheddar jack.) it was soooo good!! i added some chopped ham in too, which helped vary it from the usual. but oh my word, i don't know if i can make it again without pepper jack! i think i'll start stocking up on it when it goes on sale. yay!
Note to self: try 4 cups shells for the same amount of sauce (when not doing the oven method.)
I meant to tell you that I made some a couple of weeks ago.... thought I left a comment... anyway, I didn't have time for the oven and I agree... more shells would have worked just fine.
the recipe says to use 2 cups of elbows and since you guys suggested more pasta, I used 3 cups and felt like it was still totally fine. so that was nice to stretch the meal! also, i just watched ANOTHER variation from rachel ray and she added fresh spinach in. and guess what i have in my garden! so i threw in the little bit that i had (put it in with the cheese and make sure it has a minute to cook a little) and it was good! actually i couldn't really taste it, so i'll try to add more next time. i bet you could totally chop it up tiny and your kids would never know too :)
so the reason i wasn't using paprika was because my paprika was bad! so i got some fresh paprika (thanks, mom :) ) and tried it again and it was great! i'm just going to post my recipe down here so i don't have to read all the comments everytime to figure out what i've done...
4 cups shells or 3 cups elbows
1/4 c marg/butter
1/4 c flour
squirt of mustard
1/2 t salt
1/2 t paprika
1/4 t pepper
1/4 t cayenne pepper
2 c milk
2 c cheese
1/2 bag frozen spinach (microwave for 1 1/2 min)
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