More Food Hell

Chapter 2. Mac and Cheese Desecration



My assignment from the dietitian last week was to take a favorite fat filled recipe and modify it so that it no longer guarantees a trip to Portsmouth Hospital for an emergency angioplasty. Talk about taking all the fun out of life.

Surprisingly, I've never been a big fettucine alfredo fan, however if you took that bowl of noodles and baked them in the oven with a cracker topping, you might get my attention. Macaroni and cheese is my fat, starchy weapon of choice. I believe that it, like the crocodile, shark and fiddlehead fern, has not evolved for millions of years because it is a perfect species.

How could I do this to my most beloved of recipes, renamed "Bobaroni" and cheese for my friend Robert Croall, who refuses to come over for dinner unless I prepare it?

Then again, I do like a challenge, and the Weightwatchers frozen mac and cheese is virtually inedible. It makes Kraft Dinner look like the Chariot des Fromages at the Georges V.

So here's my old recipe, basic but beautiful:

Heat water for 1 pound of macaroni - I like shells, or penne, or elbows, or spirals, or those wheelie shapes, you get the idea.
Melt 4 T butter in a medium saucepan
Add 4 T flour and heat for 2 minutes
Add 2 cups of hot whole milk and 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of salt
Heat mixture, stirring continually, until thickened
Add at least 1 cup of shredded sharp cheddar or gruyere. My Dad, a mac and cheese meister, likes Cabot's extra sharp or hunter's cheese, or the aged cheddar from the Old Country Store in Moultonboro (which is actually Cabot that they age for a few extra epochs)
Stir until cheese is melted and sauce is smooth. When the macaroni is just barely done, drain it, put it back in the pan you boiled it in, and add the sauce to it. Stir the sauce and pasta together with a wooden spoon or silicone spatula (don't want to bruise the little darlings) and pour it into a 9 x 13 pan - I like pyrex or ceramic. Sprinkle a fistful (or more - if some is good, more is better) of crushed ritz crackers and some additional shredded cheese over the top. Bake in a 450 degree oven for about 20 minutes - the pan is shallow, the heat is high, so the top gets crunchy quickly, and I'm often wildly impatient by this point. Long enough that the cheese is bubbly and the top is brown. Macaroni and cheese that is too gooey, or unbaked, is vile.

This recipe makes 8 servings at 470 calories each.

I made the following modifications: I kept the butter and flour, but changed the milk to skim and used Cabot 75% less fat cheddar that Deb found for me. I omitted the Ritz cracker topping. The macaroni can't be changed.

Calories per serving go down to 335...that means I can have an extra helping!