Baked Mac and Cheese – Macaroni with Cheddar and Béchamel

Step-by-step recipe

1. Although mac and cheese is simple to make, the ingredients need to be chosen carefully, above all for quality. As a rule, short pasta with a hollow or channel inside is used – pipe, maccheroni, penne, trofie and so on. The pasta should be good quality and made from durum wheat, otherwise it will swell and stick together as it cooks. The cheese for the sauce is cheddar: it is soft, melts beautifully and gives the dish a good texture. Low-moisture mozzarella is perfect for the crust on top.
   
2. You can boil the pasta while you make the cheese sauce. Bring a pot of water to the boil, salt it and cook the pasta for the time given on the package. Don't overcook it: the pasta should be al dente. Meanwhile, melt a knob of butter in a frying pan and add 1 tbsp of flour. Stirring thoroughly and often, cook the flour for 2-3 min.
   
3. Then pour in cold milk in a thin stream, stirring, until the sauce is about as thick as drinking yogurt. You may need more milk: the sauce should be fairly runny. Season the béchamel with a little salt and add ground white pepper and nutmeg to taste. Let the sauce simmer over the lowest heat for a few minutes.
   
4. Grate the cheddar – coarse or fine, it doesn't matter. Add the grated cheese to the hot sauce and stir until it has completely melted into the béchamel. Add cream to make the sauce semi-liquid. In classic cooking, this combination of béchamel and cheese is called Mornay sauce. The finished sauce should be thick enough to coat the cooked pasta well and fill the hollows inside it.
   
5. As soon as the sauce is ready, drain the pasta in a colander and mix it with the sauce right in the frying pan. Stir thoroughly so there are no lumps and the pasta doesn't stick together. Make sure the oven is switched on in advance and well heated. Bakes like this are usually cooked at 180-190°C, since all the ingredients are already cooked.
   
6. Get a baking dish ready – ceramic or ovenproof glass is best. Grease the bottom and sides with a small knob of butter. Carefully transfer the pasta and cheese sauce to the dish, level it with a spatula and press it down very lightly. Grate the low-moisture mozzarella, sprinkle it over the whole surface and press it down lightly too.
   
7. Put the dish into the well-heated oven. Since the ingredients are already cooked, the baking time is simply the time it takes for a golden cheese crust to form on top – usually 25-30 min. If you want the crust even more golden, put the dish under a hot grill for a few minutes.
   By the way, the steam that forms inside is unlikely to lift the bake, but if it does, just carefully pierce the bubble with the tip of a knife. When the bake is ready and you are happy with the crust, take it out of the oven. Careful, it is very hot: put the dish on a trivet and let it cool for 5-6 min. Bring it to the table right in the dish, and everyone can help themselves to as much as they like.
   
8. Instead of a cheese crust, the dish is often topped with béchamel and breadcrumbs, but I prefer cheese. Besides the cheeses above, Swiss cheeses such as Emmental or Gruyère work well, and Parmesan or Gouda are often used too. Dried onion and garlic or mustard powder are common additions to the spices.