Preheat Oven to 350...
Pasta:
- Half a box of Pasta, (I like Cut Macaroni or Ziti, but Elbows will work fine)
Boil water, salt the shit out of it, cook just a hair past Al Dente...
Roux for cheese sauce:
- 3TBSP Butter
- 3 TBSP All-Purpose Flour
- Couple squirts of Stone-Ground Mustard...
Add to roux:
- 3 cups 2% Milk
- 2 Bay Leaves
- Paprika (sprinkle on the top to taste)
- Salt
- Pepper
- 1/2 Yellow Onion (chopped in squares)...
- 1 bag of Sharp Cheddar (add in right before pulling off stove)
Topping:
- 1 bag of Sharp Cheddar
- Chipotle Panko breadcrumbs
Melt butter, add in flour, get the lumps out, mix in the mustard... roux done...
Stir roux into the milk, add the rest of the "add to roux" ingredients minus the cheese, bring to boil, and simmer for 10 minutes while stirring... it should be a bit thick, but still easily fall off a spoon... if too thick, add some milk... if too thin, bring to another boil and add some flour premixed into a small amount of milk with the lumps out... Fish out the bay leaves before adding cheese...
Add 1 bag of Sharp Cheddar to the cheese sauce... (or whatever cheese you prefer, but I firmly stand on cheddar, preferably sharp, being the basis of mac and cheese... putting 6 exotic cheeses to make it "fancier" makes it not taste like mac and cheese, you have been warned)
Cheese sauce is done... Using a regular sized casserole dish (works best if it isn't too deep and has room to spread out... I've tried it in smaller, deeper dishes, and it never turns out quite as good), pour it over your pasta and fold it into the pasta... if you chose to use a larger cut of pasta, try to get the sauce to seep inside it, because that makes for an awesome bite, but ultimately you just want everything wet with sauce so it doesn't burn the noodles during baking...
Topping:
Get a skillet and melt some butter, while waiting on that to melt, dump another bag of Sharp Cheddar over the top and evenly spread it, add a couple turns of pepper off the grinder while you're at it, maybe a bit of salt... When the butter is melted, pull the skillet off the heat and add Chipotle Panko breadcrumbs... fold them into the butter, and spread over the top evenly...
Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until cheese is melted, panko browned, and it looks like food porn...
I can't say it's the best mac and cheese ever because I haven't tried every known version of mac and cheese in the world... I CAN say it kicks the shit out of anything I've tried from someone else... it's got hints of a unique herby flavor from the bay leaves and mustard, and the chipotle panko gives it just a little bit of heat so it tingles... (WARNING: IF YOU DON'T WANT TO MAKE MAC AND CHEESE EVERY HOLIDAY FOR YOUR FAMILY, DON'T BRING IT TO FAMILY GATHERINGS)
It should be noted this is a twist on Alton Brown's Baked Mac and Cheese... but this is how *I* make it after some heavy experimentation