A Mac Upgrade

I’ve found that the mere mention of mac-aroni and cheese to anyone who grew up in America almost always sparks an avalanche of memories, of Sunday suppers in linoleum-floored kitchens and chrome-bedecked diners, of oddly comforting lunches in school cafeterias.

Figuring that a dish so roundly loved would be the perfect excuse for a dinner party, I invited friends to bring their favorite version for a macaroni and cheese contest. It was one of the best parties I ever gave--easy to execute, delicious and with a high level of fun, an inadvertent antidote to overwrought ‘90s entertaining.

Macaroni and cheese as we know it appears to have its roots with Thomas Jefferson, an ardent gastronome who brought home pasta and Parmesan cheese from Italy. At a dinner party, he served a version of the seminal dish that American ingenuity over the years has forged into a suburban staple.

For my cook-off, the logistics were simple. Contestants could heat their prepared dishes in my oven, which could easily accommodate six casseroles. I would provide a few things to complete the meal and balance the richness of the cheesy elbows: earthy dandelion greens sauteed with double-smoked bacon, a clove-spiked baked ham. Macaroni and cheese has an affinity with cured pork. It also requires no special tableware to be appealing. In fact, it seems to taste best when served straight out of Pyrex onto chipped ironstone or paper plates.

One by one my friends appeared, proudly carrying foil-wrapped casseroles. Soon my kitchen looked like a church supper, a crowded, happy gathering of cooks putting on the final touches and recalling macaroni-inspired moments: a boy and his father sharing the secret pleasure of eating it cold from the fridge late at night; the macaroni and cheese and fish cake special at a Pennsylvania truck stop on a college road trip.

When heated, the half-dozen contenders were lined up side by side and served buffet style. We ate for hours, comparing and contrasting and returning for seconds and thirds. A Kraft macaroni and cheese, used as a control, was eliminated immediately as salty and lackluster. The rest were divided into two camps: those that used a cream sauce and those that used the more primal combination of evaporated milk and eggs.

The types and proportions of cheese were the topics of fierce discussion, and included proponents of the traditional Velveeta and American cheeses, those who favored varying degrees of cheddar sharpness, and the more radical faction, who had included Spanish Manchego, Parmigiano-Reggiano or aged Goudas. The shape of the pasta was also debated, with purists favoring the comforting traditional shape and taste of elbow macaroni over the plainly heretical experimentation with corkscrew or shell-shaped pastas.

The recipes were all so good that, in the end, nobody much cared who the winner was, although we eventually settled on two favorites: a classic cream-sauce version that used mild and sharp cheddars to produce just the right level of richness and tang, and a nontraditional dish with sharp cheddar and a well-aged Jack cheese that had been craftily lightened of its calories. By going for the more strongly flavored cheeses, its creator was able to cut the amount of cheese. She had also used rice-flour-thickened milk in the sauce, giving the dish the taste of butter without including any.

Years later my friends still talk about that cook-off, when humble macaroni and cheese got to show that, with a little love and imagination, it could be the life of the party.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Revisionist Macaroni and Cheese

Recipe can be scaled up three times to make large batch.

Serves 4

*

2 tablespoons white rice flour (available at health food stores)

2 1/2 cups whole milk

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 small shallot, peeled, stuck with 1 clove

1 small bay leaf

1 1/2 tablespoons plus 1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 pound elbow macaroni

4 ounces shredded sharp cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese (about 11/2 cups)

1 teaspoon ancho chile powder or sweet Hungarian paprika

1/2 teaspoon softened butter (for casserole)

3 1/4 ounces grated aged Monterey Jack cheese or aged Gouda (about 1 cup)

Freshly ground pepper to taste

*

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Rinse small saucepan with cold water. Add rice flour. Gradually whisk in enough milk to make thick paste. Continue whisking in milk until rice flour is incorporated. Add salt, shallot and bay leaf. Over medium heat, bring mixture to a boil, whisking frequently. Reduce heat. Simmer 10 minutes until it has consistency of heavy cream. Strain and reserve.

Bring large pot of water to boil. Add 11/2 tablespoons of the salt and macaroni. Cook until pasta is almost tender but still firm to the bite. (It will continue cooking in the oven.) Drain well and return to pot. Stir in reserved rice milk, cheddar cheese or Monterey Jack, chile powder and all but 2 tablespoons of aged Jack cheese. Add salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

Pour macaroni into buttered 2- to 3-quart casserole. Sprinkle top with remaining 2 tablespoons aged Jack cheese. Bake 15 to 20 minutes until top is golden brown. Serve immediately.

*

Food stylist, Chistine Anthony-Masterson