Not Your Mom’s Mac & Cheese: A New Twist on an Old Classic
July 6, 2012
•Le Cordon Bleu
•Chicago
• 0 Comments
Not Your Mom’s Mac & Cheese: A New Twist on an Old Classic
If you’re lucky, your mom had her own special mac & cheese recipe that she made for you. If so, you can probably still remember the smell and the taste of the creamy cheese and crunchy, golden brown breadcrumbs. If you’re not, then you remember a tasteless bowl of reconstituted powdered cheese and cheap macaroni from that all-too-famous blue box.
If you remember the latter, then we are truly sorry. But don’t fret over your lost innocence. There is still time to capture that homemade goodness, but with a modern twist. Many restaurants, food trucks, and corner diners are reimagining this classic from our collective youths with modern ingredients and preparation methods. Their inventions are completely new takes on mom’s traditional recipe.
We’ve put together our own new take on mac & cheese that’ll make you avoid that blue box forever. It will also make your family and friends think that you secretly attended a Chicago cooking school to start a new culinary career.
Gourmet Make-At-Home Mac & Cheese
There are a lot of ingredients in this gourmet mac & cheese, but don’t worry. Just follow along and you’ll be rewarded with the best tasting mac & cheese to ever come out of your kitchen. Don’t forget to invite mom over to see how she likes it.
Ingredients:
- 1 pound cavatappi noodles
- 6 tablespoons of unsalted butter
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup of diced yellow onion
- 1 ½ cups of whole milk
- 1 cup of heavy cream
- 10 whole peppercorns
- ½ teaspoon dried mustard
- ½ teaspoon white pepper
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
- 1 bay leaf
- 8 ounces of sharp Vermont cheddar cheese, grated
- 3 ounces of Fontina cheese, grated
- 3 ounces of Gruyere cheese, grated
- ¾ cup of homemade breadcrumbs (Let focaccia or brioche bread become stale and chop in a food processor.)
Preparation:
- Bring at least 1 gallon of water to boil in a large pot. Add 1 tablespoon of salt. Cook for a little over half the recommend cooking time, about 7-8 minutes. Drain pasta, rinse with cold water and set aside
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place a large, lightly oiled cast-iron skillet in the oven to heat
- Place milk and cream in a saucepan and bring to a low boil. Add peppercorns and remove from heat. Let peppercorns steep in the mixture for 10 to 15 minutes
- Melt 4 tablespoons of butter in a 3-quart saucepan over medium heat
- Add the onion and bay leaf and cook until onions become translucent, about 4-5 minutes. Remove the bay leaf
- Add ¼ cup of flour and stir. Cook for 1-2 minutes, making sure to whisk out all lumps. Remove from heat
- Strain the peppercorns from the milk/cream mixture and slowly pour it into the flour and butter mixture. Whisk well, removing all lumps
- Add dried mustard, white pepper, garlic, and ground red pepper. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Mix well. Cook the sauce until it thickens, about 5 minutes. Whisk often
- While the sauce simmers, melt two tablespoons of butter and add to the breadcrumbs.
- After the sauce is thickened, slowly mix in the cheeses
- Once all of the cheeses are melted pour the cheese mixture over the pasta and stir well
- Remove the cast-iron skillet from the oven and pour in macaroni mixture. Top with breadcrumbs and return to the oven
- Cook for 35-40 minutes until golden brown and bubbly
Serve with a side salad or vegetables for a complete meal. You may not launch a new culinary career from learning this recipe, but you will sure be able to impress your friends and family with this new take on an old classic.
This article is presented by Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Chicago. Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Chicago offers culinary arts and pâtisserie and baking training programs in Chicago, Illinois. To learn more about the class offerings, please visit Chefs.edu/Chicago for more information.
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