I’m still a huge fan of oven baked mac and cheese because the warm, comforting, casserole bake can’t be compromised. My favorite is using parmesan and asiago cheese because I can use less cheese and still have bold flavor.
– Flavor blasts with creative cheeses- Now that I’ve figured out how to cook it easily and still maintain great texture, now comes the best part-great flavor! Have fun with this recipe and experiment with flavorful, cheeses that melt well.The cheese is added in the end and it’s so creamy and amazing. – Creamy – This mac and cheese recipe is slowly cooked in water, then milk and a little butter.I can control exactly how soft or al dente I want my macaroni to be. The stove top method is a wonderful way of cooking the macaroni pasta, quickly and to your desired texture. During our hot summer days, that last thing that I want is to turn on my oven and sweat even more just for a bowl of mac and cheese. – Stove Stop- Stove top means NO oven.There is no extra pot to pre-boil or wash. All the raw macaroni is cooked in one pot, without a pre-boil step that most other stove top recipes require. – One Pot– Yes, you read it correctly.It’s simple, clear, and considerate of everything we need in order to still eat well and prepare quickly, without compromising on quality and taste. Optional- add toasted bread crumbs or panko for extra crunch and texture How to Make One Pot, Stove Top Macaroni and Cheese Recipe When macaroni is plump, tender and cooked, add the cheese If for some reason you end up with leftovers, you can repurpose it and make these Fried Mac and Cheese Balls.Start by boiling small macaroni in water on low simmerĬonstantly stir so that macaroni doesn’t stickĪfter macaroni is pre-cooked in water, add milk and simmer on low heat Macaroni and Cheese does not hold or reheat well, so be sure to make this right before you serve it. Once the topping is done, the cheese will have melted into an ultra-smooth and creamy sauce that just needs to be stirred, to coax it into a delicious hot gooey mess. This makes for a tasty topping that’s a nice contrast to the satiny smooth pasta and sauce. My solution is to toast some breadcrumbs in a frying pan with herbs and a little parmesan. Aside from being an extra step, the prolonged heat causes the proteins in the cheese to seize up, making the sauce clumpy, while overcooking the pasta. I love having a crisp crust on top of my macaroni and cheese, but I don’t like baking the whole thing in the oven. Once the cheese is in, just cover the pot with a lid and let the cheese gently melt into the sauce from the residual heat while you prepare the topping. My one recommendation is that you don’t do this with cheddar alone as it can get overwhelmingly sharp. You can use any blend of cheese that will melt. If you count the parmesan in the topping, that’s 4 cheeses! If gathering all these cheeses is too much of a hassle, then don’t let that stop you from making this. I’ve used a three cheese blend with Gruyere for its nutty depth, Cheddar for flavor and color, and Fontina for its decadent, velvety texture when melted. The starch not only helps thicken the sauce, but it also keeps the fat in the cheese from separating, which can ruin the texture of the sauce. Just boil the pasta in milk and water and when it’s just shy of being done, I take the pot off the heat and add cheese that’s been tossed in a bit of starch.
The answer is YES, which means you could technically do this in one pot if you made the breadcrumb topping in the pot first (though this will make it take longer than 10 minutes).
After making a Macaroni Salad recently that involved cooking the pasta in just the right amount of milk, I started to wonder if this method would work for mac and cheese as well. I’ve done an easy macaroni and cheese in the past, but it still involves a few pans, a colander, and a bowl. The second problem is that despite all the work, cheese sauce is tough to get right, and can often end up clumpy, gritty, or chewy, bearing little resemblance to the slick elbows of pasta in a velvety smooth sauce that we all love. The first is that most recipes are complicated, involving multiple stages and lots of pots and pans. For those who grew up making Mac & Cheese out of the blue box, the problem with Macaroni and Cheese from scratch is two-fold.