Stovetop Style Mac & Cheese

Macaroni and cheese is one of my favorite comfort foods. I experimented with various recipes for years before I settled on the one below, which is adapted from EatingWell's recipe. Most homemade mac & cheese recipes all involve cooking the pasta on the stove, tossing it in a casserole dish, pouring cheese sauce over it, and topping it with some sort of breadcrumb. I don't care for those recipes for two reasons: 1) I'm terribly impatient, and having to wait for water to boil, pasta to cook, and the dish to brown/bubble in the oven takes entirely too long and 2) I'm in the "al dente" camp when it comes to pasta, and this means that for me, even undercooking the pasta on the stove, the post-oven pasta is too mushy and not properly chewy.

The fun thing about macaroni and cheese is that it is customizable. You can eat it plain, like the first photo above. You may or may not try dabbing it in a little BBQ sauce (yes, I know I'm crazy). Alternatively, you could caramelize some onions and mix them in (second photo above). Caramelized onions take mac & cheese to an entirely new level. I was out of town last weekend, and so I had very few veggies in the fridge, but adding peas or asparagus or broccoli to the pasta water 3-4 minutes before the pasta is done is an easy way to sneak in veggies.

A note about caramelizing onions. I swear, every recipe I see online says this takes 20 minutes. I have never in my life been able to caramelize onions in under an hour. I slice them thinly, toss them in olive oil, and let them cook over medium-low heat in a nonstick saute pan, stirring occasionally, until they are are an oh so delicious caramel color. Theoretically, I suppose you could speed up the process by adding extra sugar, but I've never seen the point.

I also learned something new about caramelizing onions this week. If you put a saute pan on, and the onions have cooked for 30 minutes and are translucent, perhaps slightly brown, all is not lost if one of your best friends guilt-trips you into leaving your perfectly cozy kitchen to get killed at trivia night at a local pub. I put the onions in a covered glass bowl in the fridge, and when I got home I put them into a saute pan over medium-low heat and they finished caramelizing just fine. This might come in handy if you were planning to serve them for a dinner party and wanted to pre-cook them so that they wouldn't take so long before dinner.

Stovetop Style Mac & Cheese

1 box (about 2lb) of pasta*
3 c. 2% milk
1/2 c. 2% milk
6 Tbs. flour
1 tsp. garlic salt
1/2 tsp. ground white pepper
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. ground mustard
8 oz. (2 cups) shredded sharp cheddar**
2 oz. (1/2 cup) shredded Parmesan

Optional Add-ins: chopped broccoli, peas, chopped asparagus, caramelized onions, sautéed tomatoes, etc.

Cook your pasta according to the package directions. If you are adding broccoli, peas, or asparagus, just add them to the pasta water a few minutes before the pasta is done.

Meanwhile, heat the 3 c. milk in another large saucepan over medium until little bubbles form around the edges and it is steaming. You want it just below a simmer, but you absolutely do not want it to boil. In a liquid measuring cup, whisk together the remaining 1/2 c. milk, flour, garlic salt, white pepper, and mustard. Slowly whisk in this mixture to your original pot of milk. Continue to cook, whisking constantly, for about 5 minutes until the mixture has thickened. Whisk in the cheddar and Parmesan. Pour over the drained pasta (or pasta with veggies) and stir.

*I used 1/2 box Barilla Plus Rotini and 1/2 box Barilla Whole Grain Rotini, so that I get both protein and whole grain. The Plus will add a slightly nuttier flavor (which I happen to prefer), but their Whole Grain has a taste and texture that I find indistinguishable from regular pasta.

**You may be tempted to use 2% milk reduced fat sharp cheddar. I have tried that before, and it just doesn't melt properly. The texture of the cheese sauce will be stringy and grainy, so stick with the full-fat cheese instead.