Grant Achatz's Mac and Cheese

Name: Grant Achatz's Mac and Cheese
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 2 h 10 min
Total time: 2 h 40 min
Yield: 1 dish, 8 serving(s)
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon unsalted butter; 6 ounces thick slices bacon, cut into 1/2-inch dice; 1 medium onion, minced; 1 garlic clove, minced; 2 bay leaves; 1/4 teaspoon oregano (optional); 1 tablespoon sweet paprika; 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper; 1/3 cup all-purpose flour; 6 cups whole milk; 1 lb elbow macaroni (we used the penne) or 1 lb penne pasta (we used the penne); 5 cups extra-sharp cheddar cheese, shredded; salt, to taste; fresh ground black pepper, to taste; 1 pinch crushed red pepper flakes (optional)

Submitted by Manami

"You would expect Chef Achatz’s macaroni and cheese to have some chef tricks, but it doesn’t. He uses a white sauce, elbow macaroni and cheddar cheese, just like the rest of us. His personal touch: a tablespoon of paprika (to enhance the color of the sauce) and lots of smoky, crisp bacon bits. We love this recipe, which we tried out on resident's to see if they liked the pasta and cheese sauce. Have tweaked it a bit! F&W Magazine, 12/06 edition, From "Comfort Food from a Rebel Chef.""

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Ready In:: 2hrs 40mins
Ingredients:: 15
Yields:: 1 dish
Serves:: 8

ingredients

1 tablespoon unsalted butter
6 ounces thick slices bacon, cut into 1/2-inch dice
1 medium onion, minced
1 garlic clove, minced
2 bay leaves
¹⁄₄ teaspoon oregano (optional)
1 tablespoon sweet paprika
¹⁄₂ teaspoon cayenne pepper
¹⁄₃ cup all-purpose flour
6 cups whole milk
1 lb elbow macaroni (we used the penne) or 1 lb penne pasta (we used the penne)
5 cups extra-sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
salt, to taste
fresh ground black pepper, to taste
1 pinch crushed red pepper flakes (optional)

directions

Preheat the oven to 350°F
Butter a 9-by-13-by-2-inch baking dish.
In a large saucepan, melt the butter.
Add the bacon and cook over moderate heat until crisp, about 7 minutes.
With a slotted spoon, transfer the bacon to a paper toweled plate.
Add the onion and bay leaves to the saucepan and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until the onion is softened, about 5 minutes.
Add the paprika, oregano, garlic and cayenne and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 3 minutes.
Stir in the flour until blended.
Gradually whisk in the milk until the sauce is smooth.
Bring to a boil over high heat, whisking constantly, and cook until thickened.
Reduce the heat to low and simmer the sauce gently for 30 minutes, whisking frequently.
Discard the bay leaves.
Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
Add the macaroni or penne and boil until pliable but undercooked, about 4 minutes.
Drain the pasta and return it to the pot.
Stir 4 cups of the cheddar into the hot sauce, add the bacon and season with salt, black pepper(as needed) and a pinch of crushed red pepper(as needed).
Add the sauce to the pasta and mix well.
Spread the mac and cheese in the prepared baking dish and scatter the remaining 1 cup of cheddar on top.
Bake for about 30 minutes, until golden brown and bubbling.
Let stand for 10 minutes before serving with a baby spinach salad w/a vinaigrette dressing, crusty rustic bread and a Brunello di Montalcino from southern Tuscany.
**The assembled mac and cheese can be refrigerated overnight. Bring to room temperature before baking.

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RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

Manami

Hello all, thank you for visiting My Page but forgive me for it is a work in progress! :) As I am sure you have noticed I changed my Chef Name to Manami which means love & beauty. ;) Just thought I should get with the program - my geisha & my icon! :) Don't fret, I won't change it again! I am 70 years young and I live in a nursing home, which is out of this world, I am treated like a princess and the world is my oyster! I have a private room and during the season I do taxes for most of the staff, as well as my personal clients that have been following me since I left the business world about 25 years ago. I was rear-ended by a van and it turned my whole world upside down. Why dwell on that? I am an American Jew (from NYC) who moved to Havana, Cuba when I was 2 1/2 years old, lived there until a few days after Castro took over and vamoosed it out of that country as fast as my legs would carry me! I was on a forced hiatus from the UofM, due to illness. From there my sister, mother and I went to NYC to work and my father went to Haiti in Port-Au-Prince, where he and my uncle had purchased some tiny cocoa plantations & a chocolate factory - for the choccolate liquer - to make baking chocolate (the real bitter stuff). We joined my father about 2 months later where I spent 2 of the most carefree & wonderful years of my life! It is the stuff that movies are made of! (A la Grace Kelly - even my clothes were like hers)>  I then continued my studies in upstate NY and hated it because it was too, too cold!:( Went back to NYC to work and see what I wanted to do with my life - I was all of 20 years old and had to drop out of school because of illness and then because of the weather! Yuck - so I got a job in a Textile Buying Office as a receptionist and soon I found myself buying trimmings! Loved it and was very happy with the work I was doing. However, I got an offer from two young guys who had a factory in Cleveland, Ohio, where they made Maternity Clothes and they wanted me to be in charge of the shipping dept, keep inventory and in my spare time - help with the designing!! I couldn't pass it up - the offer sounded so great and the salary was twice what I was making in the NYC. So I went to Cleveland, got married, had both my children and got a divorce 15 years later. Then my children and I moved to South Florida and have been here since 1978, I can't count that far back :) Learned how to do taxes with H&R Block and worked simultaneously as a Supervisor in 2 offices for them for 15 years. Then after the accident everything went spiralling downwards until I could no longer walk alone even with a walker - so the next step was a wheelchair. Stayed at home with a lot of help (nurses, PT therapists) fixed the bathroom so I could bathe myself and fixed the kitchen so I could help warm-up meals (was taught how to cook in rehab) and so forth and so on. However, the fire department had other plans for me, I called them too often to pick me up off the floor - how embarassing! So they gave me a choice - either a home or they would have to call HRS! :( (very sad) It was there, in my home where I was robbed! <img title=Cry src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-cry.gif border=0 alt=Cry /> All my cookbooks (all my Julia Childs Cookbooks, my Settlement Cookbook which had been my mothers - published in 1939 - with all her notes) my mother's cookbooks from Cuba & Haiti, all my handwritten recipes. They also took all my Delft collection, some antiques that I had in the kitchen like my rolling pin, a beautiful old & used wooden bowl, a charcoal-iron that was brought north when my parents left Haiti, it was hand-painted & was gorgeous, as well as all the other things that are too numerous to mention! That proved to be the last straw & from there it was an ALF,<img title=Yell src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-yell.gif border=0 alt=Yell /> which was horrible, and then on to another home where the administrator of that home became the administrator here and voila, here I am. <img title=Smile src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-smile.gif border=0 alt=Smile /> I have a beautiful large private room with a private bath, furnished to my liking: eclectic! <img title=Wink src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-wink.gif border=0 alt=Wink /> My room is large enough to house my office and all the other odds and ends with which I like to surround myself. During tax season, mostly, my room is always full (of course I love it that way)! I have a blanket my daughter bought for me in New Mexico and that is on my bed. You guessed it - that is where everbody sits or on my great grandfather's arm chair which is in great shape. <img title=Smile src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-smile.gif border=0 alt=Smile /> Update 01/11/2008 that time is here again :) Have started doing taxes already and not just regular taxes but corporations, partnerships and 1040X - ammended returns! Whoopee! I love the feeling I get when this time comes around and I get into gear!!! I love it! :) The head chef, the kitchen supervisor & the dietician enjoy the recipes from Zaar; the ones that I post, as well as, the others. We are in the process of changing the menu right now - so we have been doing a lot of figuring. The administrator is so cute because every once in a while she asks for a recipe and then she gives me a pack of paper so I can print them. <img title=Wink src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-wink.gif border=0 alt=Wink /> I am president of the resident council and most of the family members come to me to take care of their grievances - this way I do my part - and the staff can take care of the larger problems! It has been working for 10 years - why change if it ain't broke?<img title=Wink src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-wink.gif border=0 alt=Wink /> Well, it's time to say hasta luego folks. <img title=Laughing src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-laughing.gif border=0 alt=Laughing />

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