How to cook mac and cheese

Mac and Cheese

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Mac and Cheese made from scratch is a million times better than a box. This macaroni and cheese is perfectly rich and creamy and it’s sure to be loved by people of all ages!

Easy Mac and Cheese Recipe

Mac and cheese is just one of those staple recipes we all grew up eating. This version skips a powder and instead uses real shredded cheddar, mozzarella, and cream cheese for a rich and satisfying flavor.

It’s total comfort food and it pairs well with just about anything. It’s easy enough for weekday dinners but good enough to serve at holiday get togethers.

This easy homemade mac and cheese is made on the stovetop and uses basic everyday ingredients. As much as I love creamy mac and cheese that’s been baked in the oven, this stovetop version is more practical for everyday cooking and is just as delicious!

Mac and Cheese Video

Here’s my go-to mac recipe.

Homemade Mac and Cheese Ingredients

As promised, this stovetop mac and cheese recipe is super simple to make. Here’s what you’ll need to make the silky smooth mac and cheese sauce and pasta:

How to Make Mac and Cheese

What’s the Best Cheese for Mac and Cheese?

Use a blend of cheeses for a nice combination of flavor. Here we go with cheddar, mozzarella and cream cheese.

How to Reheat Mac and Cheese

If you wind up with leftovers of this homemade mac and cheese, I recommend reheating them in a saucepan over low heat. You may need to add a splash of milk to thin out the mac and cheese sauce and prevent the pasta from drying out.

What to Serve with Mac and Cheese

I’ll admit, sometimes this simple mac and cheese recipe gets served by itself when I’m short on time. But I prefer serving it as a side to one of the following main dishes:

Baked Mac and Cheese

Still the best Baked Mac and Cheese I’ve ever had, with a stunning white creamy cheese sauce and a buttery breadcrumb topping. This is THE Macaroni Cheese recipe that’s wildly popular every Thanksgiving and Christmas!

Baked Mac and Cheese

I don’t want to be morbid, but if I had to choose a Last Meal, this Baked Mac and Cheese may possibly be it. Put me in a room with Macaroni Cheese, and neither of us stand a chance. Said Mac and Cheese would be ravaged.

And of all the Mac and Cheeses in the world, this is still the best Mac and Cheese I’ve ever had!

About this Macaroni and Cheese

This is a Mac and Cheese recipe that is everything you want in a knock-your-socks off Macaroni Cheese – cheesy and creamy, with perfectly cooked macaroni (no bloated pasta!), plenty of sauce and a crunchy buttery top (essential in my world!)

What goes in Baked Mac and Cheese

Here’s what you need. Cheese. Butter. Pasta. All the essential food groups covered!😂

Best pasta for Mac and Cheese?

Macaroni, also known as elbow pasta. But really, any short pasta will work just fine – penne, ziti, twirls etc.

Best cheese for Mac and Cheese?

A combination of Gruyere and mozzarella cheese. Gruyere for the most superior flavour with the best melting qualities for creamy sauces such as this – there’s no contention in my view. And mozzarella for stretch – nothing does the cheese pull like a good mozzarella!

But honestly, any cheese that melts well works is excellent with Mac and Cheese, such as cheddar, tasty, Colby, Swiss, Pepper Jack, Emmental.

No cream?

NO! You do NOT need it. This sauce is rich enough as it is from the butter and cheese. Cream makes it so rich you can’t eat more than a few spoonfuls. How disappointing.

How to make Baked Mac and Cheese

It’s a straightforward recipe, starting with a basic butter-flour roux that is used to thicken milk to make the cheese sauce. For first timers, I think the short video below will help give you the confidence that you’ve got this!

The simple trick to avoid lumps in the Mac and Cheese Sauce is to pour the milk in slowly while constantly stirring, then just switch to a whisk if needed to remove any stubborn lumps!

Tips for the BEST Mac & Cheese!

Freshly grated cheese – don’t use pre shredded. They have anti caking agents that can make the sauce grainy.

No bloated overcooked pasta – Cool macaroni slightly and lightly coat in butter. This stops the macaroni from absorbing more liquid while baking, resulting in bloated overcooked pasta (hot pasta absorbs liquid faster, butter creates thin film of protection) and less sauce.

To avoid lumps in your sauce, stir constantly as you slowly pour the milk in and keep stirring once the milk is all added. If necessary, switch to a whisk to get rid of stubborn little lumps!

Plenty of sauce – Because I like my Mac and Cheese saucy, not dried up so you can cut it like cake!

Can you make Mac and Cheese ahead of time? Most recipes are not suitable for making ahead, but this recipe is! The best way is to cool pasta then toss with sauce and adding breadcrumb topping. Cool, refrigerate or freeze then bake on the day of (see recipe Note 5 for baking time).

How long can Mac and Cheese stay in the fridge? Unlike most, this Macaroni Cheese recipe is good for 3 to 5 days in the fridge. Most Mac and Cheese will not keep well because there’s not enough sauce so it gets absorbed by the pasta and you’re left with dry, sauceless pasta.

Freezing? Yes! Assemble, cool, do not bake, just freeze it. Thaw then on the day of, bake per Note 5 in the recipe.

Add ins? This recipe is great as it is, but there’s tons of add-in options. Add shredded chicken, sautéed onion and bell peppers/capsicum, bacon, hot sauce (for heat!), dried herbs of choice.

What to serve with Baked Mac and Cheese

Mac and Cheese is worthy of serving as a meal in its own right, served with just a fresh green salad or simple vegetable side. Nothing heavy because Macaroni Cheese is so rich as it is!

As a side dish, it will compliment virtually any non-Asian main dish. From simple Baked Pork Chops to Steak, a Roast Chicken to Crispy Garlic Chicken Thighs, the only things I probably would not serve with Mac and Cheese would be very light summery mains such as a Tuna Tartare – just a little too much contrast.

And of course, festive gatherings! Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter – alongside a grand Roast Turkey or your Herb & Garlic Butter Slathered Turkey Breast, the juicy Roast Pork with impossibly Crispy Crackling or your Prime Rib that’s so perfectly blushing pink all the way through, it makes you want to weep.

Holidays would not be the same without this Mac and Cheese!! – Nagi xx

Baked Mac and Cheese recipe
Watch how to make it

Baked Mac and Cheese recipe video! Don’t miss the ending when it comes out of the oven….

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Mac and Cheese

This post may contain affiliate links. Read my full disclosure policy.

Ultra-creamy and topped with crispy panko and herbs, this baked mac and cheese is a real crowd-pleaser.

Good homemade baked mac and cheese begins with al dente noodles and a rich sauce made from butter, flour, milk, and loads of shredded cheese. The noodles are tossed with the cheesy sauce, transferred to a baking dish, topped with crispy breadcrumbs, and then baked until bubbling and golden. Since I find most homemade mac and cheese recipes to be a bit dry, I developed this version to be ultra-creamy. The crispy panko and herb topping is inspired by the delicious mac and cheese served at Maple Ave, a little gem of a restaurant near my hometown – it absolutely makes the dish! The recipe serves four as a main dish and six as a side; if you’d like to double it for a crowd, bake the mac and cheese in a 9×13-inch dish and increase the cooking time to 30 to 35 minutes.

What you’ll need to make mac and cheese

I use three different kinds of cheese in this recipe: Gruyère, extra-sharp Cheddar, and Parmigiano-Reggiano. Using more than one type of cheese adds dimension to the dish.

Be sure to use an authentic Swiss-made Gruyère that bears the AOP (Appellation d’Origine Protégée) seal, which shows that the cheese is made according to government-mandated quality standards. Similarly, it’s important to use authentic Parmigiano-Reggiano, which has a lot more flavor than domestic Parmesan. You can tell if it’s the real deal by the rind, which should be embossed with the name over and over. (If the cheese is already grated, it should be labeled “Parmigiano-Reggiano,” not “Parmesan.”)

I go the traditional route with the pasta and use elbow macaroni, but any pasta that has lots of nooks and crannies will work nicely.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: Boil the Noodles

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook until al dente, or just slightly underdone. (It will continue to cook in the oven so you don’t want it fully cooked.) Drain well and rinse with cold water.

Step 2: Make the Cheese Sauce

Meanwhile, melt 3 tablespoons of the butter in a medium (2-quart) pot over low heat and add the flour.

Stir with a whisk until the flour is combined. This mixture is called a roux.

Continue cooking, whisking constantly, for 2 minutes. The roux will look foamy.

While whisking constantly, pour in the milk. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and cook for a few minutes more, until thickened and smooth. This French “mother sauce” is known as béchamel, or a sauce made from a white roux and milk.

Off the heat, add the Gruyere, Cheddar, 1/4 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

Whisk until the cheese is completely melted; if necessary, place the pan back over low heat but do not boil. The finished cheese sauce is known as Mornay sauce, or a béchamel sauce to which shredded or grated cheese is added.

Step 3: Combine the Noodles with the Sauce

Add the cooked pasta to the sauce.

Stir to combine. It will seem way too soupy and creamy – that’s okay, that’s what you want!

Pour into a buttered 2-quart baking dish and set aside.

Step 4: Prepare the Crispy Topping

In a small sauté pan over medium heat, melt the remaining tablespoon of butter and add the panko.

Cook, stirring often, until golden brown, and then stir in the herbes de Provence or thyme. This step of browning the panko may seem unnecessary — you’d think it would brown in the oven — but I find it needs a head start on the stove to get really golden and crispy.

Step 5: Bake

Sprinkle the toasted panko over the pasta and cheese sauce, followed by the remaining 2 tablespoons Parmigiano-Reggiano.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until bubbly and golden brown.

Serve warm out of the oven and enjoy. (Note: this recipe was originally posted on the blog in 2009 and updated in November of 2018. To download the original recipe, click here.)

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How to
Make Mac and Cheese

A guide by Alison Roman

Al dente pasta, swirled in a salty, creamy cheese sauce, macaroni and cheese is like a hug wrapped in a warm sweater, unparalleled in its ability to comfort and satisfy. While boxed and frozen varieties have made it impossibly easy to prepare the dish at a moment’s notice, a homemade version is worth the effort. We’ll teach you the foundations of a perfect macaroni and cheese, and how to make two styles: baked and stovetop. There will be no leftovers.

The Noodles

Without macaroni, there is no macaroni and cheese. But while most Americans tend to think of elbow macaroni as the definitive shape, there is a world of options. We’ll look at a few favorites.

Karsten Moran for The New York Times

Clockwise from top, shell pasta, cavatappi, elbow macaroni and penne cooked and coated in creamy sauces.

By definition, classic macaroni and cheese should be made with, well, macaroni, a style broadly defined as any short, cylindrical extruded pasta. This includes tubes like ziti, penne, rigatoni and, yes, elbows, as well as corkscrew shapes like fusilli. All this is to say that plenty of shapes are suitable for macaroni and cheese (many of which come gluten-free). But you will want to make sure you stay within the world of tiny, tube-like shapes, or those undeniably cute little shells. (Like cutting a grilled cheese into triangles instead of rectangles, they may actually improve the taste of the finished product, if only in our heads.) Avoid long, thin shapes like spaghetti or linguine.

Elbow enthusiasts should also note that there’s a new kid in town: Cavatappi, a curly, ribbed noodle that’s longer than an elbow, may very well be the platonic ideal for baked macaroni and cheese. Its length and curl perch perfectly on a fork, its ribbing is optimal for gripping luscious sauce, and its thickness (slightly thicker than elbows) decreases any risk of mushiness.

Whatever shape or style you choose, it’s important to remember two things: Always cook the noodles in water that’s as salty as the sea to season them from the inside out, and make sure they’re cooked more al dente than you might think they need to be. The pasta will continue to cook in the cheesy sauce, which not only gains thickness from the noodles’ starch, but also deepens the flavor of the noodles themselves.

The Sauce

The keys to good macaroni and cheese are in the texture, flavor and creaminess of the sauce. Made of just four elements (milk, thickener, cheese and seasonings), it should be pleasantly creamy but not too thick. Remember that when the noodles are added to the sauce, they will soak up the liquid like a sponge, and, if there’s not enough, you’ll be left with dry macaroni and cheese: a true punishment.

Karsten Moran for The New York Times

The Cheese

The rule for cooking with wine also applies to cheese: Don’t cook with anything you wouldn’t want to drink or eat on its own. On average, you’ll need a pound and a half to two pounds of cheese per pound of pasta. But the type of cheese can vary depending on the style of macaroni and cheese you are making and your preferred flavors and textures.

Cheddar reigns here, somehow always behaving exactly as it should. It melts wonderfully, never breaking or becoming greasy, with just the right amount of salt and tang. Sharp, extra sharp and sharp white are best.

To bolster flavor, adding a touch of something a bit more assertive like fontina or Gruyère is excellent, but be sure that at least half of the cheese used is Cheddar. Fontina and Gruyère are richer and fattier and could cause a sauce to break if used on their own. Avoid ultra mild cheeses like Monterey Jack or Colby: While they are fine for melting, they lack the salt or tang to make them worth your while.

A bit of Parmesan or pecorino (up to an additional 1/4 cup grated) can always be added for deeper flavor and saltiness, but too much and the sauce could become grainy.

Whatever cheese you use, it’s always best to grate from a block rather than buying pre-grated cheese (which can contain additives to prevent it from clumping in the bag).

Now, in a perfect world, any cheese worth eating would be a good candidate for your macaroni and cheese, but that’s not the world we live in. There are many factors involved, including fat, salt, protein and water content, that make one cheese more suitable than another. For example, resist the urge to melt your favorite creamy Camembert (too fatty) or salty Gouda (too grainy) into this sauce. They’re much better as a sprinkle here and there.

Beware of too much experimentation, though. If, in adding cheeses, you find your sauce appears broken, you can occasionally remedy it by whisking in more milk (if too thick) or Cheddar (if too runny) while it’s still warm. But unlike, say, mayonnaise, once dairy breaks, it’s often broken for good. It doesn’t mean your sauce is inedible; you may just need to lower your expectations. It’ll still be delicious, but not as creamy.

The Milk

No matter the style of macaroni and cheese you make, it should be sufficiently saucy, which is to say it needs a good amount of liquid. For that, whole milk is the ideal base. Heavy cream or half-and-half are too rich, even for the most die-hard mac-and-cheese lovers. In a pinch, 2 percent will work, but avoid nonfat, as it’s likely to break the sauce and make it grainy.

The Thickener

Milk and cheese alone are not enough to emulsify the sauce in a macaroni and cheese, nor are they enough to properly thicken. The solution is typically in a traditional béchamel-like sauce (milk thickened with a roux of melted butter and flour), although it is possible to do a stellar version without. The creamy weeknight mac and cheese, below, which uses cream cheese as the thickener, is an excellent example.

Whatever you do, use caution: The sauce in the pot should be decidedly thinner than you’d want it to be in the finished dish. It will continue to thicken as it is absorbed into the pasta or reduces in the cooking process.

The Seasoning

The cheese sauce should be properly seasoned with salt and plenty of freshly ground black pepper (which cannot be undervalued, especially if you know the pleasures of a good cacio e pepe). But it doesn’t have to end there.

For some, 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of ground spices like hot or smoked paprika, cayenne and dried mustard are a welcome addition, especially if you like a little heat. A pinch of ground turmeric is fun if you’re looking to mimic the neon-orange hue of a boxed macaroni and cheese.

One to two cloves of raw garlic or 1/4 medium onion can be grated and added to the milk before the cheese to increase the savoriness and complexity.

Макароны с сыром как их любят американцы: блюдо за 10 минут с длинной спорной историей

Американцы любят говорить, что блюдо, известное в мире под названием Mac’n’cheese (или просто «макароны с сырным соусом») — это их национальное изобретение. В чем-то они правы, ведь невероятную популярность оно приобрело в 1937 году, когда компания Крафт выпустила свою версию быстрых и дешевых макарон, которые в измученных Великой депрессией США расходились как горячие пирожки.

Простые в приготовлении, достаточно калорийные, чтобы накормить всю семью — конечно, их раскупали сразу. Позже упаковки Mac’n’cheese отправились вместе с солдатами на фронты Второй мировой войны.

Старые постеры с Mac’n’cheese компании Kraft

Однако, как и большинство блюд американской кухни, эти макароны имеют куда более длинную и запутанную историю. Первый записанный рецепт относится к середине 18 века и найден он был где-то в Северной Европе, кто-то пробовал подобное во Франции и Италии, но чаще всего следы ведут в швейцарские Альпы.

Там, среди гор и туманов, подают блюдо под названием Älplermagronen (переводится примерно как «макароны альпийского пастуха»). Как и в Америке, для его приготовления используются макароны-«рожки», которые пастухам было легко брать собой в длинные походы, а сыр у них всегда был в изобилии.

Для приготовления берут тот, который легко плавится: в Швейцарии это грюйер, в США и Канаде — чеддер, ну а я приготовила это блюдо с нашим «Российским» и ниже предлагаю на ваш суд этот простой рецепт.

Mac’n’cheese с зеленой приправой

Ингредиенты для Mac’n’cheese

Для чего давать подробный рецепт обычных макарон, которые можно просто посыпать сыром и съесть? А потому что американский вариант несколько отличается от того, что мы привыкли называть «макаронами с сыром».

Это сливочный тягучий соус, который готовится очень легко, буквально за 10 минут пока варятся макароны.

А нужны нам будут следующие ингредиенты:

Готовим Mac’n’cheese

Первым делом нужно поставить вариться макароны в подсоленной воде. Время приготовления указано на упаковке и, как правило, у нас есть 10-12 минут за которые мы и сделаем сырный соус.

На дне кастрюли (берем такую, чтобы уместились все макароны) растапливаем сливочное масло и обжариваем в нем муку до нежного орехового аромата и легкого кремового оттенка (сильно зажаривать не нужно).

Отправляем к ней также соль и гранулированный чеснок (по вкусу). Без фанатизма, в конце готовки можно добавить еще при необходимости.

Обжариваем муку в сливочном масле

Теперь вливаем в муку стакан молока комнатной температуры и, не прекращая мешать лопаточкой или венчиком, добавляем сметану.

Должен получиться соус с равномерной текстурой, без комочков.

Добавляем к муке молоко и сметану

Пришло время добавлять сыр. Его нужно предварительно измельчить на крупной терке. Отравляем его в горячий соус, где он быстро и полностью расплавится.

Текстура сырного соуса станет очень нежной, бархатной. Если вдруг он получится слишком густым, то можно его разбавить небольшим количеством кипятка и все снова хорошо перемешать.

Готовый сырный соус

Пробуем то, что получилось, солим при необходимости и все готово! Теперь пришло время соединить соус и отваренные макароны (воду из-под них надо слить).

Швейцарцы посыпают свои макароны с сырным соусом жареным луком, американцы иногда добавляют бекон, а я предлагаю просто посыпать их красивой зеленой приправой, которую я приготовила из остатков урожая.

Макароны с сырным соусом по-американски

А рецепт зеленой приправы вот тут: