Soul Mac
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Soul Mac is no-joke macaroni and cheese. It's old school where you cook the pasta, thicken a milk sauce, add some cheese, create a crunchy topping, and pop it in the oven. Quick mac and cheese has it's place, but not on today's menu. If you can't find the shape of pasta I used, other shapes I'd recommend are medium shells, elbows, campanelle, gemelli, rotini, mini penne, pipette.
Author:
Serves: 8-10 side dish portions
Ingredients
  • 4 tablespoons butter
  • 5 tablespoons all purpose flour (I prefer unbleached)
  • 4 cups whole milk
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon pepper
  • 1 lb Cellentani (corkscrew) Pasta
  • 16 oz sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (about 4 cups)
  • 8 oz havarti cheese, shredded (about 2 cups)
  • ¼ cup parmesan cheese, grated
  • ¼ cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs
Instructions
Pasta
  1. Spray or butter your baking dish and set off to the side. (I used a 12¼" x 8¾" dish.)
  2. Cook the pasta according to the package*.
  3. *I salt the water just before adding the pasta. *I suggest cooking it 2 minutes less than the shortest recommended time. (For example my cellentani said "Cook 11-12 minutes for al dente" so I cooked it for 9 minutes.) This might seem undercooked, but the noodles will soften more when you add the sauce and put it in the oven, so this avoids soggy noodles that fall apart.
  4. When cooked, drain the pasta and add it to a large bowl, set aside.
Sauce
  1. In a medium pot, make the roux by melting the butter then adding the flour. Stir with a whisk to combine and cook about 3 minutes until the flour is a little toasted/ lightly browned.
  2. Slowly whisk the milk into the roux a little bit at a time, being sure to fully whisk away any lumps before adding more milk. (Once you've slowly added about half the milk, you should be able to add the rest of the milk all at one time while maintaining a smooth, non-lumpy sauce.)
  3. Bring the sauce to just below boiling, stirring constantly, to thicken it for about 5-10 minutes.
Assembly & Baking
  1. Add the cheddar and havarti to the large bowl of pasta, stirring to combine.
  2. Transfer the pasta/cheese mixture into your baking dish.
  3. Pour the piping-hot sauce (so it melts the cheese) evenly over the pasta/cheese mixture in the baking dish.
  4. Top evenly with the breadcrumbs and parmesan.
  5. In your oven, arrange a rack to be on the second-closest level to the broiler. Turn broiler on low.
  6. Place casserole under broiler and close the oven door so the whole casserole stays heated while the top browns. Watch carefully to avoid burning, about 10-15 minutes depending on your oven.
Recipe by Laughter and Lemonade at https://www.laughterandlemonade.com/soul-mac/