This is a vintage Stacy and Mike recipe, from the days when a handful of handwritten recipes from my mother, Mike's tofu stir technique, and the Betty Crocker Cookbook comprised our entire culinary knowledge. In food writing, there is a well-worn trope about learning how to cook from a wise elder, the grandparent or parent who imparts decades of wisdom about roasting a chicken or canning pickles. That is not my story, since I was spoiled--I have a mother who made homemade dinners for us nearly every night. Since I didn't need to, I lacked the motivation to learn how to cook, and I was content to subsist on spaghetti noodles topped with shredded cheddar cheese on the rare occasions when I had to fend for myself.
You can criticize the Betty Crocker Cookbook for hawking the company's baking mixes and condensed soups, featuring some dubious "ethnic" recipes, and tending towards meat and carbohydrate heavy-dishes in lieu of more vegetable-centric cuisine. But when I left home at age 21 and finally started cooking in earnest, I needed Betty Crocker's helpful pictorial tutorial on page 221 about how to properly scramble eggs and the handy chart on page 375 giving water amounts and cooking times for various types of rice. Learning to cook is a process, and Betty Crocker gave me the basics, like this from-scratch macaroni and cheese recipe that started me on my journey to the quinoa, kale, and Ethiopian split pea stew ahead.
This isn't an overly decadent macaroni and cheese: I've reduced the amount of butter and cheese from the original recipe, and I prefer the heartiness of whole-wheat pasta. However, this isn't a "diet" meal either, since it still contains a respectable amount of full-fat cheese. Usually we opt for sharp Cheddar, but this time around I wanted to use up a block of Swiss. It was tasty, but I prefer the extra zip of sharp Cheddar. Note that Worcestershire sauce contains fish, so omit it for a strictly vegetarian dish.
Adapted from the Betty Crocker Cookbook
Ingredients:
- 2 cups dry whole-wheat macaroni
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon ground mustard
- 1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce (optional)
- 2 cups milk
- 1 1/2 cups shredded cheese, preferably sharp Cheddar
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Prepare pasta according to package directions.
Meanwhile, melt butter in a medium saucepan over low heat. Add the flour, salt, pepper, mustard, and Worcestershire sauce, if using, and stir to form a thick paste. Add the milk and bring to a boil, stirring constantly and breaking up lumps as needed. Continue to stir and cook at a boil for a minute.
Remove from heat and stir in cheese. Fold in prepared pasta and pour into an ungreased 2 quart casserole dish.
Bake for 20 minutes, or until lightly browned.
