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About a month ago, the New York Times
food section published a story about
macaroni and cheese.
Macaroni and cheese is great stuff, and
it's hard to take issue with the
author's contention that the cheesier,
the better.
But I disagreed with the scorn she
heaped on white sauce, or béchamel.
This classic French sauce is basically
milk thickened with flour, and it's used
in a lot of homemade macaroni and cheese
recipes as a binder.
There's nothing wrong with mac and
cheese recipes made without white sauce;
they'll be cheesier, but also a bit
grainier.
If you prefer a creamier mac and cheese,
then by all means use a white sauce.
There's nothing to stop you from adding
as much cheese as you want.
Béchamel is a snap to make, and it's
great in all kinds of casseroles.
If you have a casserole recipe that
calls for cream of mushroom soup, try
substituting a thick white sauce; it
serves the same function, but tastes
much cleaner.
Use the basic formula of one tablespoon
butter to one tablespoon of flour to one
cup milk.
For example, for two cups of sauce, use
two tablespoons each of butter and flour
and two cups of hot milk.
Start by melting the butter in a heavy
saucepan over medium heat. If you like,
you can sauté some minced shallot or
onion in the butter at this point, too.
Stir in the flour and cook, stirring,
for two to three minutes. The object
here is for the flour to lose its raw
taste, but it shouldn't turn brown.
If you're making macaroni and cheese,
consider stirring in a teaspoon of
paprika, too.
Now whisk in the hot milk and stir
pretty much constantly until the sauce
thickens--about five minutes. Then
continue stirring for another three or
four minutes. Remove from heat and stir
in salt to taste. For each cup of milk,
you'll need one quarter to one half
teaspoon of salt.
If you're making macaroni and cheese,
make two cups of white sauce while
you're heating the water for a pound of
pasta.
For a traditional dish, you'll want to
use elbow pasta. But you can make
"macaroni" and cheese using any small,
substantial pasta shape, like penne.
Cook your pound of pasta in boiling,
salted water until it's slightly
underdone, then drain it.
Mix it with the white sauce and three
cups of grated cheddar cheese, then
transfer this mixture to a buttered
gratin dish. Dust the top with more
paprika.
Bake at 375 degrees for about 30
minutes, until the macaroni is crusty on
top but still moist within. Serve hot.
You can jazz up this basic recipe by
using different kinds of cheese, or a
mixture of cheeses.
You can also top the dish with bread
crumbs before it goes into the oven,
although I prefer mine unadorned.
Finally, if you don't feel like messing
with macaroni and cheese at
all--white-sauce-based or otherwise--you
can get outstanding mac and cheese at
Soul in the Hole, 601 N. Arizona Ave.,
Chandler.
I'm pretty sure that owner Toni Lopez's
recipe is nothing like mine.
But, hey, there's room for more than one
mac and cheese recipe in this world,
anyway. |
