Was this recipe amazing? YES CHEF ANNE.
We made this mac and cheese yesterday when we made the cupcakes from my previous post (it was bacon day). This recipe was an enormous success! Ben and I agreed that it was too heavy on the mustard, while Mark pronounced it absolutely perfect. I realized as I was cleaning up that I had grabbed the 1/3 cup instead of the 1/4 cup off the table when I had added the mustard to the base for the sauce, so the mistake was mine, not the recipe's. Make sure you're careful with your measurements because something like mustard has a very strong flavor. This is one of my favorite things that we've made for a main course. It is so rich, comforting, and filling. Making and eating this mac and cheese will make you feel awesome! And also very thirsty!
Ingredients:
6 slices of bacon - Buy good-quality bacon. I can taste the difference. It really is better. You will also be using the fat that renders out of the bacon in this recipe, so remember not to throw it away!
3 tbsp unsalted butter
1 onion, cut into 1/4 inch dice
1/2 cup flour
1 quart whole milk - we used lactaid milk
1/4 cup dijon mustard
Tobasco or hot sauce if you want, but I left this out.
1 lb medium shell shaped pasta
approx 2 cups or 8 oz grated cheddar cheese
approx 2 cups of 8 oz grated fontina cheese
approx 1 cup or 4 oz grated parmesan cheese
Directions:
1. Cook the bacon in your preferred pan, and save the bacon fat in a bowl as it renders out. Cook until crisp, then set aside. As long as you're shuffling pots and pans around, you might as well set up your pasta water to boil. That way, while you're making the sauce, it will come to a boil, and you can have the pasta done in advance.
2. In a large pot, saute the onion in a mixture of bacon fat and the butter on medium heat. Cook until the onion is soft and smells amazing, about 6 minutes.
3. Add the flour and cook, stirring frequently, until the mixture looks like wet sand. You will not be able to picture this until you see it, and then you'll know exactly what Chef Anne means by wet sand. She says this will take about 3 minutes, although I think it took me a bit less than that, so just keep an eye on it. This was around the time when I realized my pan had heated up too much, and I turned it down a little. That's something to keep an eye on while you're cooking - sometimes cooking exactly on medium heat can be a bit too hot or not quite hot enough, depending on your pan and possibly some other factor such as the phase of the moon and whether the date is an even number ;-)
4. Slowly whisk in the milk and mustard. This is where you can shake in as much or as little Tobasco sauce as you may want. Bring to a boil, then reduce to low and simmer until the mixture is slightly thicker than heavy cream. My sauce boiled extraordinarily fast and presumably kept boiling for a bit until I realized that it was suddenly surprisingly thick, so I went onto the next step without letting it cook at low, and everything was totally fine.
5. Add the cheeses to the milk mixture and whisk to combine. Chef Anne tells you to taste at this step and add more salt or milk if you think it needs salt or is too thick. I was so excited by how amazing it smelled that I honestly forgot to taste it at this step.
6. Pour the pasta into the sauce and stir to coat the pasta. Then stir in the cooked bacon. Indulge in comfort food immediately. BUON APPETITO!