My mom and I somehow got to talking about macaroni and cheese today, and the different methods of making it. I’ve seen some pretty elaborate recipes for Mac-n-cheese, but personally I find that I’m much more likely to turn to a simple recipe when I’m in the mood for it (especially if I just want to cook up a small amount for a snack). Thus, this simple & humble dish is quite frugal, too. In addition, I find that if I use cheese with a bold, sharp flavor like sharp cheddar and/or Parmesan, I don’t have to use as much in order to impart a good cheese flavor.
Below, I share my own method of making mac-n-cheese; it’s so simple that it can’t even really be called a recipe! I don’t measure the ingredients; I just decide how much pasta I’m hungry for, and then just “eye” the cheese amounts, adding a bit of yogurt/buttermilk/butter/milk for some liquid; the cheese sauce pretty much makes itself in the pan.
Parmesan cheese, sharp cheddar, and yogurt
Lindsey’s Easiest Mac-n-Cheese Ever
– Desired amount of whole wheat pasta (I enjoy Eden Kamut spirals)
– Desired amount of grated sharp cheddar and/or Parmesan cheese (roughly equivalent to the amount of dry pasta you’re cooking)
– Small amount of plain yogurt, buttermilk, butter, or milk (I like yogurt)
Cook your pasta in salted water, to the tenderness you like. Drain the pasta. Return it to the pot, and set the burner to very low heat. Add the cheese(s) and yogurt to the pot, and stir gently but constantly. The cheese will kind of clump up at first and you’ll think “well this is just great” …but keep stirring! It’ll pass the clumpy phase and begin to form a lovely, gooey coating over your pasta. Once it’s at that stage, it’s time to eat! Add any seasonings you want (I added some ground Ancho chili pepper to mine at the very end), though it really doesn’t need anything extra. Yum!
This recipe is part of today’s Pennywise Platter Thursday carnival over at The Nourishing Gourmet.
You weren’t joking when you said that this was an easy recipe! I love that! I think that Ann Marie from Cheeseslave.com makes a really simple mac and cheese recipe too (maybe hers uses cream cheese too? I don’t remember).
Ooo! I’ll have to check out cheeseslave’s mac-n-cheese. Cream cheese sounds like a yummy addition! I have a little bit in the freezer, so maybe that’s what I’ll do with it!
Oooh, I’ll have to try that! To think it was that easy and I’ve been using the boxed kind all this time (shame, shame, I know – at least it was Traders Joes organic Mac ‘n’ Cheese). There is a restaurant in downtown LA I have yet to try but people like called “Mac And Cheeza” that serves nothing but mac ‘n’ cheese!
http://www.yelp.com/biz/mac-and-cheeza-los-angeles-2#query:macaroni%20and%20cheese