2018_September-October.indd

the Home Cooking issue

• What’s missing? You’ll notice I haven’t made a plug for Cheddar, and here’s why: although it’s one of the most commonly recommended recipe cheeses, Cheddar is a pretty bad melting cheese. It goes greasy rather than gooey. Only young Cheddar has the moisture and lower acidity to melt evenly, and then it doesn’t have much flavor. I’d strongly encourage an Alpine/Havarti-style combo rather than a young or mild Cheddar • What about all those amazing hard cheeses like Parmigiano-Reggiano, Pecori- no Romano, Piave, Reypenaer aged Gouda or Sartori SarVecchio Parmesan? They won’t melt worth a lick, but you can finely grate them and combine with toasted bread crumbs for the crunchy, cheesy topping of your dreams • And finally: Do the work of grating your cheese yourself. Pre-grated and bagged cheeses use the youngest, mildest (i.e., least flavorful) cheeses possible. Also, cheese loses its flavor once its cut and grated and allowed to sit. I guarantee you’ll have a much tastier mac and cheese if you do the labor yourself. Think of it as the exercise to offset the meal that will follow. Mac and Cheese Inspiration: Now that you’ve got the technique and ingredients down, here are my parting words on making something memorable. For most of my life macaroni and cheese was a single thing, most akin to what my kids eat from the box. In fact, mac and cheese is more of a blank slate for flavor combinations. I think of it as a casserole to which seasonings and other ingredients can be added. At Thanksgiving,

a butternut-squash, brown- butter-sage mac and cheese made with Gruyere manages to capture the root vegetable/ toasted nut flavors that are influencing all of my cooking during that season, but it does so in one perfect bite. Saints Sundays are best fed with a

I mix two-thirds whole milk to one-third plain yogurt (or if I have Mascarpone on hand, even better) over medium-low heat. I lob a fat chunk of butter in for good measure. While that’s warming/melting, I dig through the drawer in my fridge where cheese bits go to die. I cut off the rinds on the hard cheeses and shred them up on a box grater. Softer cheeses get cut into small chunks. I run the precooked pasta I always have on hand (I cook a pound or two at a time) under warm water to take the chill off. By this point I’ve got milky soup bubbling on the stove. I sprinkle in some cornstarch and start feeding the grated cheese in by the handful. My kids like to help with this part, so everyone stays occupied. We stir and thicken for a few minutes, and then the pasta goes in. Another minute and everything is evenly coated and well- enough combined. And that’s dinner, along with cucumber and sweet pepper slices. Does this violate many of the best practices recommended above? Absolutely. Does the cheese sauce freeze up and congeal after 10 minutes in the pot? Yes, it does. Do my kids eat it before that can happen? They do indeed. But it takes the same amount of time as the box, and I can pick the cheese crust off the bottom of the pan and eat it with a glass of wine. Everyone wins.

Southwestern mac and cheese using Pepper Jack, crushed tortilla chip topping and a scoop of salsa to top it off. It’s like nachos, but much, much better. Even in the heat of late summer you can make your mac and cheese more like a classic Caprese salad, using Mozzarella, Goat Cheese and Ricotta along with shredded basil and the last of the season’s tomatoes. I know it’s not light, but somehow it tastes that way. The introduction of even a single add-in can change the whole tenor of a mac and cheese, whether it’s oven-roasted tomatoes, roasted red peppers, bacon or a few liberal glugs of Crystal hot sauce. Instead of making one communal tray of mac and cheese, consider individual 8-ounce ramekins for a dinner party, and fancy the whole thing up with a smooth, silken cheese laced with black truffle, such as Sottocenere. And, finally, for every parent out there who, like me, has made boxed mac and cheese the unofficial sixth food group, here’s my new weeknight work-around. The best mac and cheeses are made in the oven, but they take a considerable amount of time to bake and then cool before you can eat them.Stove-top recipes are faster and tend to be much creamier. So my kids are getting this new quickie version:

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MY ROUSES EVERYDAY

SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2018