Best Homemade Mac and Cheese
- Ready In:
- 1hr 30mins
- Ingredients:
- 12
- Serves:
-
6-8
ingredients
- 1⁄3 cup butter
- 1⁄4 cup flour
- 1 pint whole milk
- 3⁄4 lb sharp cheddar cheese
- 3⁄4 lb brie cheese
- 1⁄3 lb parmesan cheese
- 8 ounces pancetta
- 2⁄3 cup ipa beer
- 1 lb macaroni noodles
- 1 cup breadcrumbs
- 2 teaspoons paprika
- 2 teaspoons rosemary
directions
- Preheat oven to 350F (180C).
- Melt butter in large pot over low heat.
- In a separate pan, begin cooking pancetta over low heat. The intention is to cook the pancetta about 75% before removing from heat.
- In another large pot, boil water for pasta. Add pasta and cook according to directions on package as soon as water is boiling.
- Add flour in slowly while stirring constantly, to ensure thick blend with few/no chunks.
- Add in cheddar cheese and turn heat up to medium. Stir until almost all cheddar has been melted and blended into the mixture.
- Add in brie cheese, continue stirring, until mixture is consistent.
- Add in parmesan cheese (or parmesan/romano blend) while continuing to stir.
- Add in milk slowly until desired consistency is reached (at this point, the mixture might seem almost solid. You want it to be a very thick liquid that you can pour onto the pasta.
- Add ipa to the mixture.
- Add 75% cooked pancetta to the mixture.
- Pour cooked noodles into a large baking pan. Spread evenly.
- Pour cheese/pancetta mixture over the noodles, ensuring a relatively even spread (this should be easy/it should settle almost evenly if consistency is correct/enough milk was added).
- Sprinkle breadcrumbs over top of the macaroni in the pan. Cover all surface area with a thin coating of breadcrumbs, and press down using your hands to ensure the grease from the pasta/cheese mixture covers the breadcrumbs.
- Sprinkle paprika and rosemary over the top of the breadcrumbs.
- Bake in the oven for 45 minutes, checking every 10 minutes or so to ensure that breadcrumbs are cooking correctly/not burning (will burn if not sufficiently coated in grease).
- Let cool for about 5 minutes after removing from the oven. Serve plain, with hot sauce, or other sauce of your choosing.
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