I have been talking about making homemade mac n’ cheese for awhile. There is something so comforting and yummy about mac n’ cheese that is made from scratch and then baked in the oven with a crispy breadcrumb topping.
After googling around a little bit looking for the right recipe none jumped out at me. Then I had the idea to use goat cheese! About a year ago, I went through a phase where I was using goat cheese a lot but I don’t think I had even bought any in the past 6 months.
Goat cheese is pretty popular, so I thought I would be able to find a good one online. Not so much, they were all meh.
There was no need to buy breadcrumbs because I planned on using a sourdough breadbowl that I had left over from a spinach dip I had made for the Superbowl on Sunday.
Ingredients:
1 box macaroni
¼ cup butter
¼-⅓ cup flour
1 quart light cream (half/half or milk will work also)
⅔ large log of goat cheese, crumbled
⅓-½ pound fontina cheese, shredded
1 cup sharp cheddar, shredded
¼ standard wedge of asiago cheese, shredded
1 tablespoon Herbes de Provence
½ cup grated parmesan
sourdough bread, day or two old
salt and pepper
Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add macaroni and cook for about 7 minutes (or however long until the macaroni is cooked). Strain pasta and return to pot.
While the pasta is cooking, make the cheese sauce. Start by melting the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Once the butter is melted, add a heaping tablespoon of flour and whisk into the butter. Add one or two more heaping tablespoons of flour until the butter and flour have made a paste. Let the paste simmer for about a minute.
Add a cup of cream (or milk) and whisk into the paste until fully combined. Then start adding the cheese. Even though I wrote that the cheese should be shredded, if you want to cut it into small pieces instead, that will work.
I started with the goat cheese. Once about ⅓ of the log was melted, I began adding the fontina. I had bought a half pound wedge and ended up using about ⅔ of it in the sauce and a little more on top. Next I added the cheddar cheese, followed by the asiago cheese.
As you are making the sauce, if it is getting too thick add come more cream. Once all the cheeses are added, you should have used the whole quart of cream.
Tasted the sauce as you go and adjust the cheese ratios depending on your tastes. Also add salt and pepper as you see fit.
I also added Herbes de Provence that my Grandma had raved about when I visited her last. If you are opposed to seeing green specks in your mac n’ cheese you can skip this step.
Once your sauce is smooth and adjusted to your taste, pour the sauce over the pasta. Or add the pasta to the sauce pot. Really doesn’t matter.
Important note: I added the sauce to the pasta and didn’t use it all since I thought it would be too much sauce. This was a mistake because during baking the sauce is absorbed by the bread crumb topping and the pasta, resulting in a much dryer dish. Use all the sauce, trust me.
For the bread crumb topping I cut my two-day-old sourdough loaf into two-inch sections and threw them into the food processor. Since the bread was starting to go stale, there were some big chunks that didn’t grind up. That was okay though, I just took these big chunks out. The consistency of the bread crumbs doesn’t need to be uniform or super small. A couple minutes in the food processor should be enough. I ended up with about 1 cup of breadcrumbs.
Next, mix the grated parmasean into the breadcrumbs. Add some fresh ground salt and pepper. Pour the cheese covered macaroni into a casserole dish and add some chunks of the different cheeses to the top. Finish by distributing the bread crumbs evenly over the top.
Bake in the oven for 45 min to an hour. The longer it bakes, the crispier the noodles on the edge will get so if you like this go for the whole hour, if not, take it our earlier!
I had not been planning about writing about this so I did not take pictures of the process. But, I did take a picture of some left overs that I put into individual bakers for dinner last night.
1 box macaroni
¼ cup butter
¼-⅓ cup flour
1 quart light cream (half/half or milk will work also)
⅔ large log of goat cheese, crumbled
⅓-½ pound fontina cheese, shredded
1 cup sharp cheddar, shredded
¼ standard wedge of asiago cheese, shredded
1 tablespoon Herbes de Provence
½ cup grated parmesan
sourdough bread, day or two old
salt and pepper
Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add macaroni and cook for about 7 minutes (or however long until the macaroni is cooked). Strain pasta and return to pot.
While the pasta is cooking, make the cheese sauce. Start by melting the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Once the butter is melted, add a heaping tablespoon of flour and whisk into the butter. Add one or two more heaping tablespoons of flour until the butter and flour have made a paste. Let the paste simmer for about a minute.
Add a cup of cream (or milk) and whisk into the paste until fully combined. Then start adding the cheese. Even though I wrote that the cheese should be shredded, if you want to cut it into small pieces instead, that will work.
I started with the goat cheese. Once about ⅓ of the log was melted, I began adding the fontina. I had bought a half pound wedge and ended up using about ⅔ of it in the sauce and a little more on top. Next I added the cheddar cheese, followed by the asiago cheese.
As you are making the sauce, if it is getting too thick add come more cream. Once all the cheeses are added, you should have used the whole quart of cream.
Tasted the sauce as you go and adjust the cheese ratios depending on your tastes. Also add salt and pepper as you see fit.
I also added Herbes de Provence that my Grandma had raved about when I visited her last. If you are opposed to seeing green specks in your mac n’ cheese you can skip this step.
Once your sauce is smooth and adjusted to your taste, pour the sauce over the pasta. Or add the pasta to the sauce pot. Really doesn’t matter.
Important note: I added the sauce to the pasta and didn’t use it all since I thought it would be too much sauce. This was a mistake because during baking the sauce is absorbed by the bread crumb topping and the pasta, resulting in a much dryer dish. Use all the sauce, trust me.
For the bread crumb topping I cut my two-day-old sourdough loaf into two-inch sections and threw them into the food processor. Since the bread was starting to go stale, there were some big chunks that didn’t grind up. That was okay though, I just took these big chunks out. The consistency of the bread crumbs doesn’t need to be uniform or super small. A couple minutes in the food processor should be enough. I ended up with about 1 cup of breadcrumbs.
Next, mix the grated parmasean into the breadcrumbs. Add some fresh ground salt and pepper. Pour the cheese covered macaroni into a casserole dish and add some chunks of the different cheeses to the top. Finish by distributing the bread crumbs evenly over the top.
Bake in the oven for 45 min to an hour. The longer it bakes, the crispier the noodles on the edge will get so if you like this go for the whole hour, if not, take it our earlier!
I had not been planning about writing about this so I did not take pictures of the process. But, I did take a picture of some left overs that I put into individual bakers for dinner last night.
I highly recommend reheating leftovers in the oven instead of the microwave. Sure, it takes longer, but it is so worth it!
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