Stovetop Macaroni and Cheese

The ingredients list on the average box of macaroni and cheese is scary. It's loaded with chemical preservatives, a crap ton of sodium and even petroleum based food dyes. That blue box is the go to for so many busy parents and students. Think you don't have time to make anything else? Wrong! I'm going to show you how to make macaroni and real cheese on your stovetop in the same amount of time it takes to cook your pasta. As an added bonus, this recipe shows you how to make a basic béchamel that can be used as a base for so many other awesome sauces.

Stovetop Macaroni and Cheese

Ingredients:

1 box of uncooked pasta (your choice of the shape)
Water to cook the pasta
3 Tbs butter
2 Tbs AP flour
2 cups milk
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/2 tsp ground dry mustard
2 cups freshly grated cheddar cheese

Put the water on to boil for your pasta and while your waiting, go ahead and grate your cheese. I used a mx of mild and sharp cheddar. Grating the cheese yourself is so important. It only takes a minute or two to grate with a box grater and bagged pre-grated cheese is NOT an option. In order to keep the cheese from clumping they add cellulose to the cheese. That, friends, is wood pulp. Its is indigestible to the human body. Take a minute and grate your own cheese. Its cheaper, too.

For the pasta, they've come so far with whole wheat pastas from just a couple years ago. They don't have the grainy texture they used to and even my 2 boys like it now. The biggest bonus is if you check out the ingredient list! This box cost exactly the same as any of the other dried pastas but note

its single ingredient as opposed to the 8 or 10 in conventional dried pastas.

When your water has reached a rolling boil, add your pasta and stir.

In another pot over medium heat, melt your butter.

Whisk in your AP flour and stir it around for a couple minutes to remove the raw flour taste, but don't let it start to brown.

It will be a little pasty, don't worry, you did it right.

After you've stirred and cooked your flour mixture for a couple of minutes, slowly add your milk while whisking it into the flour mixture.

Rule of thumb, no thickening agent (like flour or cornstarch) reaches its full thickening power until it comes to a boil, so continue whisking your milk mixture until it comes up to a bubble. After it has bubbled, it should coat the back of a spoon pretty well, as a thickness test.

Now start adding your grated cheese. Whisk it in a handful at a time and stir until its thoroughly combined before adding the next handful. 

When all your cheese is in, turn off the heat and add the salt, pepper and mustard powder. This whole sauce process should only take you about 8 minutes which means, as your sauce is finished, your pasta should be ready to drain.

Once your pasta is drained, return it to the pot you cooked it in and add your cheese sauce.

Stir it in and you're ready to serve.

Emmett is huge fan! 

I really wanted to get this recipe up on the blog to prove how easy it is to make macaroni and cheese on the stovetop, just as quickly as the boxed impostors and with all REAL FOOD. Because of the dyes in our major brand boxed macaroni and cheeses, they would be illegal to sell in the UK and I couldn't feed that to myself or my children for one minute longer. Also, the basic béchamel that you make with flour, butter and milk is a great skill to have. You can make several other sauces from that base, including sausage gravy. Enjoy!