Jamie's America
By Jamie Oliver
1 hr
Not Too Tricky
serves 8
About the recipe
Proper American-style mac and cheese – beautifully gooey and full-on, in-yer-face cheesy! Mac ’n’ cheese’ is a classic American pasta dish – everyone loves it. Sometimes it’s done so badly in the convenience area, it’s almost become famous for being horrible, but when you do it properly, trust me, it’s an absolute killer. I’ve made this dish my own by lightening it with sweet tomatoes and giving it some crunch with delicious breadcrumbs. Just you wait till you try it!
Recipe From
Ingredients
10 cloves of garlic
45g butter
3 heaped tablespoons plain flour
6 fresh bay leaves
1 litre semi-skimmed milk
600g dried macaroni
8 tomatoes
150g Cheddar cheese
100g Parmesan cheese
a few sprigs of fresh thyme
optional: a couple of splashes of Worcestershire sauce
optional: 1 whole nutmeg, for grating
3 big handfuls of fresh breadcrumbs
olive oil
Top Tip
Serve this with a nice salad. This dish isn’t going to win any prizes in the nutrition department, but if you only have it once in a while as a special treat, it’ll do you no harm.
Method
- Peel and finely slice the garlic.
- Get a large pan of salted water on the boil. Melt the butter in a large ovenproof saucepan over a low heat, then add the flour and turn the heat up to medium, stirring all the time, until you get a paste – this is your roux.
- Add all the sliced garlic – don’t worry about the amount because each slice will caramelise like toffee in the roux. Keep cooking and stirring until golden and the garlic is nice and sticky.
- Add the bay leaves and slowly whisk in the milk a little at a time to ensure you get a nice smooth sauce. Bring the mixture to the boil, then leave it on a low heat to simmer and tick away, stirring occasionally.
- Preheat your oven to 220°C/425°F/gas 7.
- Add the pasta to the pan of boiling salted water and cook according to the packet instructions. Meanwhile, roughly chop the tomatoes on a board and season them well with sea salt and black pepper. Grate the Cheddar and Parmesan.
- Drain the pasta and add it immediately to the sauce. Give it a good stir and take the pan off the heat. Stir in your grated cheeses, chopped tomatoes and pick in half of the thyme leaves. A little Worcestershire sauce added now is nice, and so is a little grating or two of nutmeg. Now work on the flavour – taste it and season it until it’s hitting the right spot. You want it to be slightly too wet because it will thicken up again in the oven, so add a splash of water if needed.
- If you’ve made your sauce in an ovenproof casserole-type pan, leave everything in there; if not, transfer it to a deep earthenware dish. Bake it for 30 minutes in the oven, until golden, bubbling, crispy and delicious.
- While it’s cooking, put your breadcrumbs and the rest of the the thyme leaves into a pan with a few drizzles of olive oil over a medium heat. Stir and toss the crumbs around until crunchy and golden all over. Remove from the heat and tip into a nice bowl.
- Serve your macaroni cheese in the centre of the table, with your bowl of crispy breadcrumbs for sprinkling over, and a lovely green salad.
Feel free to use any tubular pasta you want.
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