Creamy Stove-top Macaroni and Cheese
Both kids and adults love this simple recipe. See below for a variation: Pizza pasta!
Servings: 4 servings
Ingredients
- 1 pound pasta of your choice-- preferably organic. My favorite now is spelt pasta or einkorn pasta! You can try whole grain pasta if your family likes it, but my family doesn't.
- 1/2 cup butter-- pastured butter is best
- 1/2 cup flour-- I use einkorn flour mostly now, or organic all-purpose flour
- 3 cups whole milk sometimes I'll use cream for part of that amount, read about healthy milk choices
- 8-12 ounces of your favorite cheese-- we use organic cheddar, shredded -- plus a little extra for the top if desired, see the instructions below
- Sea salt and pepper to your taste
- 3/4 cup Organic cracker crumbs-- I like these crackers best for this recipe or seasoned bread crumbs--this is optional but so good! (I save the bread ends that no one wants and every now and then I’ll put them through the food processor and add a little garlic powder, sea salt, pepper, maybe some Italian herbs and keep it all in a baggie in the freezer to use in quick meals like this.)
- 1/3 cup melted butter to mix with the cracker or bread crumbs
Instructions
- Boil pasta with 1 Tablespoon of sea salt added to pasta water. Now make a basic cheese sauce while the pasta is cooking…
- Melt butter in a medium sized saucepan. When it's hot, add flour and whisk well; keep whisking while it cooks for 2 minutes or so, but keep the heat on low-medium and don't let it burn. Add milk very slowly and keep whisking, it'll start to thicken. Once you have it all stirred in (again, keep whisking and don't have your heat too high or it will stick and burn), add the cheese. Keep whisking as it melts and add some pepper and plenty of sea salt to give it a great taste. Do some taste testing to get it right, add more cheese if you’d like. (This cheese sauce is also great on steamed veggies and it's the same sauce I use for my ham & escalloped potatoes.) If it gets too thick, add a little more milk and whisk more. When the pasta is cooked, strain it then stir everything together and you're done!
- If you want it extra tasty, sprinkle on some bread crumbs or cracker crumbs mixed with melted butter. Sometimes I'll double the recipe and put it all into a buttered baking dish, add extra cheese on top and the seasoned bread crumbs/crackers, then bake till it's hot and golden at about 350* or instead of baking, just throw it under the broiler for a few minutes to get the top golden and crispy.
Notes
Also you might want to try this recipe that my Mom makes: baked macaroni and cheese--for that one you don't make a separate cheese sauce first.
PIZZA PASTA VARIATION:
Instead of cheddar, use mozzarella cheese in the cheese sauce, and I sometimes add a few ounces of cream cheese to make it extra creamy. Also you might add in 1-2 teaspoons of garlic powder and/or Italian seasonings. Mix in the pasta as noted above, then serve with a dollop of pizza sauce on top OR just stir in however much you'd like. Also stir in pieces of ham, sausage (browned in a pan first), pepporoni, olives, mushrooms, or anything else you like on pizza!