Mac 'n Cheese

In these turbulent times, who doesn't crave the familiar?

To those that have only had it out of a box, this may come as a revelation. The textures and tastes make this dish a pure delight.

Even if think of this dish as quintessentially American, the actual roots of this recipe go very far back.

If you pull out Pellegrino Artusi's masterpiece from 1891, La scienza in cucina e l'arte di mangiar bene, you see similar version of the recipe under maccheroni col pangrattato (macaroni with breadcrumbs), maccheroni colla balsamella (macaroni with béchamel), and very oddly enough as maccheroni alla francese (macaroni French style!)

In Ada Boni's masterpiece Il talismano della felicità published in 1929, you see a variant appear under maccheroni alla besciamella (macaroni with béchamel) in the section on paste al forno (baked pastas.)

Please note how the spelling has evolved and become standardized since the unification of Italy. Oddly enough, she does not consider it important enough to include the recipe in the English edition (which is barely a quarter of the size of the Italian original!)

What is presented below is pretty much identical to Artusi's maccheroni col pangrattato (with the small addition of nutmeg.)

Times have changed but our palates haven't.

Ingredients

4 cups penne

butter
1 cup milk
1/2 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cup gruyère (grated coarsely)
3/4 cup parmigiano-reggiano (grated coarsely)

breadcrumbs

nutmeg (optional)
sea salt
black pepper

Recipe

Cook the penne in heavily salted water until under al dente (somewhere around the 80% mark works great!)

Meanwhile make the béchamel sauce. Heat the butter and milk in a pan. When it nears a boil, add the flour in very small amounts while whisking continuously. The sauce will continue to thicken. Add the salt, black pepper and nutmeg (if using) and take it off the heat.

Preheat an oven to 375°F.

Combine the penne, the sauce, the cheeses in a oven-proof casserole. Top off the dish with the breadcrumbs (this is the real secret to success!)

Bake uncovered until the surface is brown, bubbly and crispy (about 30-35 mins.)