
Those brackets are not decoration — they are Foodakl's own read of this photograph, drawn where the app found each part of the plate.
Mac & cheese
Also known as macaroni and cheese · mac and cheese · macaroni cheese · mac n cheese
Elbow pasta folded through a cheese sauce and baked under a browned crumb. The first spoon pulls; the corner pieces crackle.
Typical serving
680 kcal
usually 530–860 kcal
| 22 g | |
| 76 g | |
| 32 g |
Reference figures for a dish as it is commonly cooked — never a measurement of your plate. The range is the honest part: two kitchens make this differently. In the app, a photograph replaces the guess.
Before you start
- an oven, and a dish it can go straight into
Ingredients
Serves 2 · dimmer marks are storecupboard
- 140gmacaroni pasta
- 60gpecorino romano
- 60gmature cheddar cheese
- 25gbutter
- 25gplain flour
- 350mlmilk or water — milk, and full fat if there is a choice
- 20gbreadcrumbs
- 1 tspenglish mustard
- to tastenutmeg
Method
7 steps
boil · 9m
Pasta in well-salted water for two minutes less than the packet says. It has a second cooking in the oven and finished pasta comes out of that as pulp.
fry · 4m
Butter melted, flour stirred in, and cooked together for a full two minutes until it smells biscuity rather than of raw flour.
simmer · 8m
Milk in a splash at a time, beaten smooth before the next goes in, then simmered gently until it coats a spoon.
fold · 4m
PAN OFF THE HEAT, then the cheeses in a handful at a time with the mustard and nutmeg. Over direct heat the cheese splits into grease and threads, and there is no bringing it back.
fold · 2m
Drained pasta turned through. It should look slightly too loose — it tightens in the oven.
roast · 20m walk away
Into a dish, breadcrumbs over the top, at 200°C until it is bubbling at the edges and brown on top.
rest · 5m walk away
Five minutes standing, or the first spoonful is a landslide.
Worth knowing
Thomas Jefferson served macaroni pie at the White House in 1802 — the dish’s American papers are older than most states.
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