Baked mac and cheese

For the ultimate creamy cheese sauce, try tossing your grated cheese with cornflour before adding to your sauce. The flour acts as a stabiliser, helping to emulsify the grated cheese into a smooth and creamy sauce – important for high-moisture cheeses that can release excess water during the melting process, resulting in a curdled sauce.

Baked mac and cheese Credit: Kitti Gould

• serves

  4

• prep

  15 minutes

• cook

  20 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 500 g shell pasta
• 125 g salted butter
• 1 brown onion, diced
• 1 tsp ground mustard seed, or Keens mustard powder
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• ½ lemon, juiced
• salt and black pepper, to taste
• 375 ml milk
• 375 ml thickened cream
• 1 egg
• 250 g strong and bitey tasty or sharp cheddar cheese, grated
• 150 g red Leicester, grated
• 200 g mozzarella, grated
• 50 g parmesan, grated
• 2 tbsp cornflour
• 5 sprigs thyme, leaves picked
• pickled red onions, optional to serve (see Note)

Slaw

• 1 carrot, shredded
• 1 zucchini, shredded
• ¼ red cabbage, finely sliced (or mandoline)
• 1 spring onion, finely sliced
• ½ bunch flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
• lemon juice, to taste
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• ½ tsp cayenne pepper
• salt and black pepper, to taste

Resting time: 5 minutes

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180˚C. Cook the pasta according to package directions.
2. While the pasta is cooking, melt the butter in a large saucepan. Add the onion, ground spices, a squeeze of lemon juice, some salt and pepper and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes.
3. Stir through the milk and cream and bring to a gentle simmer. Crack the egg into a small bowl and whisk with a fork. Add a little hot milk mixture from the pan to the egg, while whisking, to temper the egg and prevent it from scrambling. Whisk the egg mixture back in to the sauce.
4. Combine the grated cheeses in a large bowl and reserve ¼ for later. Toss the larger batch of the cheese with the cornflour then gently stir into the saucepan over low heat with half the thyme. Cook over gentle heat until all the cheese has melted.
5. Once the pasta has cooked, drain and combine with the cheese sauce. Transfer the pasta and sauce to a large baking dish and sprinkle with the reserved cheese and remaining thyme leaves.
6. Bake for 20 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and golden. Remove from the oven and torch the top with a blowtorch if you like for a slightly crunchy texture. Allow to rest for 5 minutes.
7. Just before serving, in a large salad bowl, combine all the slaw ingredients and toss well to combine. Taste and adjust for seasoning as you like.
8. Serve the baked mac and cheese with the slaw and pickled onions on the side, if you like.

Note

• To make pickled red onions, combine 2 sliced red onions, 1 tablespoon of whole black peppercorns or Sichuan peppercorns and 4 sprigs of thyme or rosemary in a large jar. Combine 1½ cups water and 1½ cups apple cider vinegar in a medium saucepan and bring to the boil over high heat. Add 3 tablespoons of salt, 2 tablespoons of honey and 2 tablespoons of chilli flakes and cook for a further 3 minutes, then remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly. Pour the brine into the jar, allow to sit for 20 minutes before using.

Photography by Kitti Gould.

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Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.