Stovetop Mac & Cheese
4
servings15
minutes20
minutesIngredients
1 lb pasta of your choice
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper (or to taste)
2-2/12 cups milk (any kind, can also sub in heavy cream or half & half for a creamier sauce)
2 cups shredded cheese (your choice)
Directions
- Boil pasta in a large pot per directions, drain and set aside
- In a medium saucepan over medium heat melt butter, and then whisk in flour and salt to form a paste (you can add pepper here too if you like)
- Cook the paste until it puffs slightly, stirring or whisking the whole time
- Add your milk (or milk and cream) slowly, whisking as you pour to combine. Start with just 2 cups.
- Heat the milk mixture until it bubbles, but don’t boil it
- Once it bubbles, reduce the heat to low and gradually add your shredded cheese, stirring as you add
- At this point, you may want to add more milk/cream if you like a thinner sauce
- Pour the cheese sauce over the pasta and stir until sauce is evenly distributed (The sauce will thicken slightly as it cools)
- Serve as is, or sprinkle more cheese on top!
This mac and cheese recipe is about as simple as it gets. You can make it as fancy as you feel, or as fancy as the ingredients in your pantry and fridge will allow.
Got bacon? Crumble that in. Need your kids to eat veggies? Add some cooked broccoli florets. Want to impress a date? Use gruyere and smoked gouda cheese and pour it over a pasta shape you can’t pronounce. (Full disclosure: I have never tried this, but I promise I would be thoroughly impressed if someone cooked that for me.)
I recommend NOT using pre-shredded cheese because it usually has that additive that makes it not melt as well, but you can, it will still be edible. You can mix up mozzarella and cheddar for this, but if all you have is the 5-cheese Tex-Mex blend from your local grocery store, that’ll work too.
Enjoy!