Cut the Cheese
We eat a lot of cheese in my house, and every once and a while, it’s time to clean out the fridge. What do I make with all the random hunks of cheese in my fridge? Macaroni & Cheese!!! But, no fear, this isn’t the mac-n-cheese you remember. Its made with great, flavorful cheeses and topped with a crunchy panko crust. It was definitely the most fattening thing I’ve made in quite a while, but dangit, it was good! The recipe is adapted from Alton Brown’s on the Food Network.
I served it as a main course with a tomato, cucumber and red onion salad.
Macaroni and Cheese Recipe
3/4 pound Gemelli pasta (or elbows)
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
3 cups milk (I used 1%)
1/2 cup yellow onion, finely diced
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 large egg
12 ounces (by weight) sharp cheese, shredded
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Fresh black pepper
3 tablespoons butter
1 cup panko bread crumbs
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large pot of boiling, salted water cook the pasta to al dente.
2. While the pasta is cooking, in a separate pot, melt the butter. Whisk in the flour and keep it moving for about five minutes. Make sure it’s free of lumps. Stir in the milk, onion, bay leaf, and paprika. Simmer for ten minutes and remove the bay leaf. Temper in the egg. Stir in 3/4 of the cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Fold the macaroni into the mix and pour into a 2-quart casserole dish. Top with remaining cheese.
3. To make the topping, melt the butter in a saute pan and toss the bread crumbs to coat. Top the macaroni with the bread crumbs. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and rest for five minutes before serving.
Makes 6-7 Servings
Note: I used 5 different cheeses, Gruyere, smoked mozarella, parmesan, Irish Dubliner, and some stinky (but very yummy) French cheese that I forgot the name of. Do not use too much smoked cheese, or it will overpower the other cheeses.
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Where do you find Panko bread crumbs? I’ve seen this in other recipes but I can never find it in Publix. :-(
Hey Pam! My Publix just started to carry them… If you can’t find them at yours, Whole foods always has Panko. They are soooo much better than regular bread crumbs!
We’ll see ya in two weeks right??? :)
Did you deseed the cucumbers? Interesting :)
Hi Maki… yes, I always deseed the cucumbers. I had a chef in culinary school that would practically beat us with a whip if we didn’t remove seeds and/or peels from cucumbers AND tomatoes. To this day, I still remove the seeds… old habits die hard.