Mac and Cheese
I keep hearing about mac and cheese. It’s the comfort food everyone’s talking about, and trying to re-invent. So, I made my own version.
This one used applewood smoked bacon. That made it… great.
Start by making a cream sauce. Bacon fat, butter, and flour makes a type of thickening agent (a roux), and add to that milk. This will thicken as it boils, and you can augment that with cream if you like. Ok, I did.
Make sure you add several cloves of garlic as this creamy mixture comes up to temperature.
Then, mix in your cheeses to form the sauce. In this case, I used a divine aged white sharp cheddar, a smokey mozzarella, a sweet gorgonzola, and you guessed it, some parmesan. Fold cooked pasta into the creamy, cheesy mixture, add the bacon, chopped, and top with more grated parmesan and fresh bread crumbs.
Bake for 30 minutes at 375 degrees. If you need, turn on the broiler at the end to “toast” the fresh bread crumbs.
Enjoy. Each and every creamy bite. For this recipe, I used and enjoyed a De Cecco rigatoni. Garnish with chopped basil or parsley.
2 Responses to “Mac and Cheese”
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Matt Sadler
Said this on October 30th, 2008 at 2:45pm:Holy crap- that looks great!
Did you use the Nueske’s brand bacon from Fresh Market?
MessyChef
Said this on October 30th, 2008 at 4:01pm:Matt,
I don’t remember which one I used, to be honest. I’ve had the Nueske’s from Fresh Market and think it’s one of the better I’ve had.
I’m going to make a carbonara with an applewood smoked slab bacon tonight, but I don’t recall the brand; it’s one I got from Whole Foods.