Julia Moskin's Creamy Macaroni & Cheese

A pound of cheese. A pound of cheese. I still can't get over it. That Ben and I made a dish using a pound of cheese last night, and we're still alive to talk about it. Granted, we didn't eat the whole thing (yet), but still. A pound of cheese! I have to say, I'm grateful to the blog for expanding my culinary horizons (and no jokes about my waistline, please. I unfroze my gym membership yesterday, Just In Time), and for single-handedly preventing my development of osteoporosis. After dinner, Ben pounded a glass of red wine, hoping to rinse out his arteries. I just lay on the couch in a lactic stupor.

Growing up with an Italian mother and an American father who wanted nothing, but nothing, to do with the trappings of typical American childhoods (No television? check. No Cap'n Crunch? check. No must-have, to-die-for, orthopedically-unsound jellies? check), macaroni & cheese was something that was totally foreign to me until I went to college and tried a forkful of bright orange goo one night in a friend's dorm room. I chewed, I swallowed, and I wondered. How did this soft slop become the comfort food of children all over the country? I was suddenly grateful for my parents' insistence on healthy, homemade food. I had taken it for granted.

This is not to say that mac & cheese has to be bad for you (or your children). I don't believe in eating food from a box, but there's nothing wrong with making it from scratch, especially a casserole as easy as this one. As Julia Moskin in last week's NY Times points out, add a crisp salad and a glass of wine to the table, and you've got a pretty nice meal. There's a lot of fat in it, it's true. But there's also a lot of protein and more than your fair share of calcium. And it was delicious. Rich and filling and utterly delicious. It's not exactly the kind of meal I can eat every week, even with my unfrozen gym membership, but I'm keeping the recipe.

First, puree together cottage cheese, mustard powder, cayenne, nutmeg, salt and pepper.

Add milk, a half pound of uncooked elbow pasta, and most of 1 pound of grated cheese (we used extra-sharp cheddar). See this for an idea of the absolutely obscene ratio of pasta to cheese.

Spread this mixture in a buttered pan and bake for half an hour, covered with foil.

Uncover the pan, sprinkle the mixture with the remaining cheese, and put it back in the oven for 30 minutes, at which point it will be bubbling and crusty and your home will smell divine.

Comments

[Ilva]

Luisa, I just tagged you for a kind of meme-challenge! Participate if you feel like it!

[Kaffeebohne]

This look delicious! I need to keep this receipe in mind when I cook for friends because my men don't eat these amounts of cheese in one dish.

[Alanna]

You DID make it! So many thanks!! Now I can cook/eat it vicariously although hmmm ... may I still sip on my own glass of wine?

That said, I'm still feeling ever so tempted to make this too, not helped, as hoped, by a small scoop of mac & cheese from Whole Foods yesterday.

Still hanging tough, Alanna

[Georgia]

Were you also deprived of Barbies and Transformers and shirts with logos on them? My parents weren't expats, but the happy natural lives they lead in the '70s gave them the idea that children shouldn't be exposed to pop-culture, so no tv for us either (except one half-hour a week - Fraggle Rock on Sun. mornings).

[Doug Barber]

"I just lay on the couch in a lactic stupor"
:::guffaw::::

[Fesser]

I admire your courage. I have been working up the dudgeon to address that article, because I disagree with it in a variety of ways, but I admire your courage.

[tokyoastrogirl]

This post is hilarious! I love that you lay in a lactose induced stupor. It looks completely luscious though. Was it worth the calories? I'm guessing it was!

[Jessica "Su Good Eats"]

Looks delicious and easy, but I don't have the courage to eat all that cheese!

[Lindy]

This is a serious dilemma.. I'm making mac and cheese on Thursday. This looks great-now I must decide whether to go with this one, or my usual, which does involve bechamel and a tad less cheese.
I am fascinated by the uncooked macaroni aspect of this one.
Unlike Julia Moskin, I do like breadcrumbs on top. But I could always add those. Hmmm.

[Ivonne]

As usual a great post! Like you I was never exposed to mac & cheese as a child. We ate pasta with homemade tomato sauce (NEVER store bought). But now there are very foods that comfort as much as a well-made plate of mac & cheese.

As for the pound of cheese ... yum!

[Luisa]

Ivonne - thank you!

Lindy - I'd say, try this one just for the sake of change. And add breadcrumbs!

Jessica - make all your friends come over and eat it with you! That way you only about a sixth of a pound of cheese ;)

Tokyoastrogirl - thank you! Every once in a while the calories are worth it.

Fesser - there's no time like the present.

Doug - glad you liked that ;)

Georgia - I had a Barbie (and even a bedroom for Barbie that folded into flat pink square of plastic - I think my mother took pity on me) but my friends are still recovering from the shock of finding out that I had (and have) no idea what Fraggle Rock was (is).

Alanna - make it for a dinner party along with a fantastic veggie dish from your site. That way, you only have a small piece of M&C which really isn't that bad for you. And don't the veggies cancel out all the fat? :)

Kaffeebohne - that sounds like a plan. Hope you like it!

Ilva - thank you, my dear!

[Molly]

What a great post, Luisa! You're too funny, ma cherie, with that "lactic stupor" of yours. I may have to fork out for a pound of cheese very, very soon...

[eqj (the chocolate lady)]

Was this the recipe that called for raw macaroni?

[Luisa]

Molly - make sure you have friends to eat it with you! And thank you, doll.

EQJ - yep, it is.

[Josh]

Oh my gosh this was sooo good.

I made it over the weekend. Easy and delicious!

Thank you for posting this!

[Luisa]

Josh - I'm so glad you liked it and found it as easy as I did.

[johanna]

Hi Luisa,
Great post about the creamy mac and cheese. I made it too and honestly was so disappointed...maybe I overcooked it though. Mine came out grainy annd mushy and not at all creamy.
I think I'll stick with the roux/cream sauce method, even though the article said otherwiese!
Great site, I'll be reading regularly for sure.

[Jacqueline]

I made mac and cheese last night too. Didn't use a pound (and I'm hiding this from my husband!) But I did make some yummy m&c - small elbows, 4 cheeses, pancetta, cayenne. Maybe I'll post on it, too. Right now it's chocolate grated on Iggy's bread.
http://leatherdistrictgourmet.blogspot.com

[Rachael]

Oooh this looks really good!!

When I was little my parents also forbade those oh-so-desirable jelly shoes, though mac-n-cheese from the kraft box was a staple. It took until I was an adult to actually try making the real homemade stuff, and oh is it good comfort food. I've only ever made the cream/roux version, but it also always comes out grainy, so I'll have to try this one