comfort food

Since the weather has turned colder recently we’ve been enjoying our favourite comfort foods again. One of my kids most requested is homemade mac and cheese. Here’s the recipe I’ve made up for them.

Homemade mac and cheese

4 cups pasta (such as rotini, shells etc)
2 cups old cheddar
1 cup mozza
1/4 cup parmasean
2 TBSP butter
1/2 cup finely diced onion*
1/4 cup flour
3 cups hot milk
1/2 cup bread crumbs

Boil your choice of pasta until it is a firm el dente (trust me, you don’t want to start with overcooked pasta!). Drain and then rinse under hot water. In the meantime, grate all of the cheese into a mixing bowl. Toss it with 1 TBSP of flour to keep it from sticking together. Reserve 1/2 cup of cheese in seperate bowl. Melt butter over medium heat in a large sauce pan. Add onions and saute until transparent. Add the rest of flour and let cook for 2 minutes (don’t brown it). Add hot milk all at once and stir vigourously with a whisk. Let it come to a boil and then continue to stir until the mixture thickens. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add cheese a handful at a time, allowing it to completely melt between additions. Once cheese is completely combined, remove from heat and gently fold in cooked noodles. Coat well. Transfer to a buttered casserole dish. Add bread crumbs to reserved cheese and mix well. Sprinkle evenly over top of maccaroni. Bake in a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes until hot and bubbly. Serve with a big garden salad or cut up veggies.

Feel free to experiment with different cheeses. Emmental would make a great substitution for the mozza. You could use blue cheese instead of parmasean, if you are into the stinky feet cheese.

* make sure it’s fine or your 3 year old will notice it and shriek, “onions, I hate onions!”.

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