The mother of all comfort foods… Macaroni & Cheese!

Written January 11th, 2012 by go lb. salt
Categories: Black Truffle Salt, cheese, Recipes

Silky. Gooey. Soothingly warm. Lactose heaven.

Mac and cheese is arguably the mother of all comfort foods. For those who are lactose intolerant, it’s probably best if you quit reading now, there is no reason to torture yourself. For the rest of you…read on!

If you are gluten intolerant you can find good pasta and you can use potato flour in place of wheat flour to make your béchamel. Yea, there’s the caution about cooking your flour long enough to give it that nice nutty (rather than raw flour) flavor. And also the caution about the combination of cheeses so that it still has that nice creamy consistency. But it’s YOUR mac & cheese. Do what YOU want. Experiment. Change it up. Indulge yourself.

The real secret to the best mac & cheese you have ever had is in the love…you have to love what you are doing…cooking, creating, inventing. Don’t settle for someone else’s simple mac & cheese recipe. Own it! Make it yours. Modify it. Change it. Make it LIVE! Identify three things that you think would taste great in mac & cheese and then modify a suitably agreeable recipe accordingly.

We’ll share ours as a place to start. Remember…you aren’t looking for -”that was good” – you are looking for – “I’m full and my mouth is still watering.” Come on, get going. And…let us know how it turned out…OK?

For grins and giggles you can also check out our mac & cheese video recipe here. Yes, we know we mis-spelled roux!

FIVE Cheese Mac & Cheese

3 lbs penne pasta

8 tbsp butter

8 tbsp flour

1 tbsp mustard powder

5 cups half and half

2 cups heavy whipping cream

2 eggs

3 lbs crab (real or surimi or mix and match– you choose)

1 large white onion – diced in 1/8” – 1/4” pcs

14 ounces diced green chile

1 lb bacon chopped

8 oz Fiscalini Hopscotch Cheddar (shredded)

8 oz Fiscalini Smoked Cheddar (shredded)

8 oz Fiscalini Smoked Mozzarella (shredded)

8 oz Dubliner Irish Cheese (shredded)

24 oz Monterey Jack (shredded)

3-5 pinches Black Truffle Salt

Directions

Render bacon and place to the side.

Cook pasta to a nice al dente’.

Melt butter in pan, add flour, cook flour & butter to a nice golden brown. (You’re a making a béchamel roux – google it!)

Stir in diced onion, add Black Truffle Salt and sweat onions in roux.

Add half & half and heavy whipping cream. Add green chiles. When sauce begins to thicken slowly add cheeses one by one and make sure each cheese melts into sauce before adding the next. Finish by adding crab & bacon.

Pour cheese sauce over pasta & combine. Place in suitable baking pans or dishes and place in oven at 350° F for 30-35 minutes.

Serve & ENJOY!