Mac 'n' Cheese

Recipes

The persistent popularity of commercially produced macaroni elbows bound by a packet of powdered plasticine never ceases to amaze me.

That is not to say that a proper gooey, crusty, golden yellow, bubbling basin of hot macaroni and cheese is not the definition of comfort food. Long before "pasta e quattro formaggio" became part of the everyday, there was macaroni and cheese. And while many a snooty foodie might not put mac 'n' cheese in the same category with other pasta and cheese combinations, I don't know of one person who does not get giddy at the sight of a big pan of homemade, not-out-of-a-box, elbow macaroni fossilized in a tempting bedrock of rapidly coalescing cheddar cheese. Everyone likes it, especially when it's made by somebody else. For many, however, their first encounter with a made-by-somebody-else mac 'n' cheese meant the insidious Kraft dinner.

While the marriage of pasta and cheese may have taken place centuries ago, the benchmark Kraft macaroni and cheese was born in 1937. It all began in St. Louis, Missouri — a town that comes up frequently in the history of foods like hot dogs and ice cream cones. A salesman with the Tenderoni Macaroni Company, in an effort to boost sales, tied a packet of Kraft grated "American" cheese to his box of noodles. When Kraft heard of this salesman's audacious marketing scheme, they offered him a job. They packaged (pardon the expression) the idea and promoted the concept on the Kraft Music Hall radio show as a "meal for four in nine minutes." That was the extraordinary year in which Spam was introduced, as was Pepperidge Farm bread, Kix cereal, Ragu spaghetti sauce, Rolo chocolate-coated caramels, and Smarties. That year, the novel Gone with the Wind was a blockbuster best seller, and nine million boxes of Kraft dinner were sold at "the everyday price of 19 cents." These days Kraft will sell over 300 million units every year.

The basic recipe, however, has remained unchanged. This was and still is, an out-of-a-pot, "not baked in the oven," mac 'n' cheese. Like Sara Lee chocolate cake, Kraft Macaroni & Cheese has become a benchmark for taste and texture. The tiny elbow macaroni and salty tang of the bright yellow, slithery sauce laced with a good dose of nostalgia is a powerful draw.

Kraft and its clones.

Still, nostalgia alone is not enough to sell a product. So while the basic recipe has remained the same, Kraft (a $37-billion company) has certainly branched out from there. The company recently issued its classic Macaroni & Cheese in Scoobie Doo, Sponge Bob, and Spiderman manifestations to increase the allure among mac 'n' cheese's most loyal followers — kids (and adults with severe arrested development). There is also microwaveable Easy Mac (for whom nine minutes is far too long), three-cheese, extreme cheese, three types of Bistro Deluxe (portobello, sun-dried tomato, and an even fancier three-cheese), two versions of organic cheddar, harvest wheat, and Cheesy Alfredo (an amusing redundancy if ever there was one) among others. While the chem lab ingredients (like Sodium tripolyphosphate — a preservative for seafood, meats, poultry and pet foods also found in toothpaste, soaps, and detergents) vary between these varieties, all of the products share one thing — between 550 and 1,470 mg of sodium per serving. Muck 'n' Cheese, I say.

And then there are the Kraft clones that try to one-up the original: Trader Joe's offers regular and organic, Back to Nature has a taste guarantee, and other brands try different things but taste the same: Salty and ultimately disgusting. It's easy to get uncomfortable with this comfort food.

You can date the beginning of the convenience food era from the first Kraft Dinner. To those who grew up with it, the blue box became a comfort food when away from home. For many who went off to university, mac 'n' cheese was the first meal they learned to cook — maybe the only meal other than Ramen, the other farinaceous favorite. Although some may never graduate from mac 'n' cheese out of the box, those who have know it as a from-the-oven delight — mac 'n' cheese out of the box rather than out of a box. Think: baked ziti, fettuccine alfredo, even lasagne, or a bowl-full of other Italian macaroni and cheese dishes. Think pasticcio, the Greek mac 'n' cheese, and the many wonderful up-market variations on the pasta and creamy cheese theme.

You're not Proust — a single food item will not unlock a memoir worthy past. Grow up! You're not Thomas Wolfe — if you want to go home again, take the high road — make one of these baked macaroni and cheese dishes listed below. They're well worth the journey.

Edward Bottone, a food and lifestyle journalist, is Chef/Instructor in the Culinary Arts program at Drexel University and has been a radio talk show host and TV presenter, and is also a food stylist and photographer.

Baked Creamy Rotini, from Edward Bottone.

Easy and rich.

Serves 4

1 pound rotini (gemelli, fuselli)
2 1/2 cups heavy cream
3 eggs
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 pound feta cheese (with black pepper even better), crumbled
1/4 cup pecorino romano, grated
3 dashes of hot sauce (optional)
1 teaspoon nutmeg
salt and black pepper to taste
1 cup mozzarella, shredded

Cook the rotini in plenty of well-salted boiling water until al dente. Drain well, reserving just less than a cup of pasta water.

Whisk together the cream, eggs, and reserved water. Stir in the flour, feta, pecorino romano, hot sauce, nutmeg, and black pepper to taste. Pile the pasta into an oiled casserole dish that you can also serve from. Pour the cream mixture over the pasta. Sprinkle the top with the mozzarella cheese. Bake in a preheated 350º oven for 35 minutes or until the mixture has set and the edges are golden brown. Enjoy immediately.

Greek Pastitsio, from Edward Bottone.

The perfect party dish, makes enough for 10 or more.

2 tablespoons good olive oil
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
3 medium onions, chopped
2 pounds stewing lamb, trimmed and minced or ground
Salt and pepper to taste
One 28 ounce tin of plum tomatoes, seeded, chopped
Cinnamon stick
1 cup red wine
1 cup tinned chicken broth
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 to 3 tablespoons fresh oregano
2 bay leaves
1 pound ziti
1 1/2 pound plain Greek yogurt, drained
3 eggs, beaten
1/2 pound kefalotyri or Manchego cheese, grated
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup parmigiano, grated
1 cup bread crumbs

To make the meat sauce, sauté the onions and garlic gently in the olive oil. When they are soft, add the lamb and cook, stirring until the color has gone out of the meat. Season with salt and pepper and add the tomatoes, cinnamon stick, red wine, chicken broth, tomato paste, oregano, and bay leaves and raise the heat. Bring to a boil, lower to simmer, cover and cook 15 minutes. Uncover and cook another half hour. Sauce should not be watery. (Can be done a day ahead.)

Meanwhile, cook the ziti in plenty of well-salted boiling water until al dente. Drain well.

In a separate bowl whisk together the eggs and yogurt, then add the cheese and nutmeg.

Assemble the pastitsio in an oblong lasagna pan or glass oven-proof dish by placing a bit more than half the pasta in the dish and sprinkle with some grated parmigiano. Cover with all the meat sauce. Top with remaining pasta and top that with a generous sprinkling of grated parmigiano and finally the yogurt mixture. Sprinkle this top layer with the remaining cheese and breadcrumbs. Bake in a preheated 350º oven for 35 minutes until the top is crisp and golden brown. Allow to rest for 15 minutes before serving.

Neptune’s Mac 'n' Cheese, from Edward Bottone.

Very upmarket; very irresistible.

Serves 4 to 6

1 pound gemelli pasta (or shells or bow ties)
1 small onion, minced
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
12 large shrimp, peeled, deveined, and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/4 cup dark rum (optional)
3 tablespoons flour
One 10 ounce bottle clam juice
1 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Salt and white pepper to taste
1 1/2 cups Fontina cheese (about 6 ounces), grated
1/3 cup pecorino romano, grated
1 3/4 to 2 pounds cooked lobster meat, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
6 ounces fresh crabmeat, picked over
2 tablespoons fresh chives, snipped
1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs

Cook pasta in lots of well salted, boiling water until just al dente. Drain.

Sauté onion in butter in large saucepan over medium heat. Add shrimp and cook for a minute; then dark rum and ignite. Once flames have died, remove seafood (should be just opaque) with a slotted spoon and set aside.

Add flour to the butter and rum, and cook, stirring, for 4 to 5 minutes. Slowly add clam juice and cream, and stir until the sauce has thickened. Add tomato paste, paprika, and cayenne pepper. Season with salt and white pepper. Add cheeses and stir until smooth. Remove from heat.

Fold together pasta, lobster, shrimp, crab, and chives with sauce. Mound into individual casserole dishes (ramekins) or one big one, sprinkle with bread crumbs, and dot with butter. (Can be made ahead to this point and held.)

Bake at 450º for about 20 minutes, until lightly browned on top and bubbling.

Boxed mac 'n' cheese photo by Edward Bottone, baked macaroni and cheese photo by Kitchen Wench via Flickr (Creative Commons), "The Cantankerous Cook" photograph from Hulton Archive/Getty Images, "Plate" photograph from FoodCollection/Getty Images.