Mac ‘n’ cheese for a crowd

I got this recipe from a friend years ago and have tweaked it a bit to suit my tastes. I don’t make it too often because it’s not only incredibly rich and kind of expensive to make, but it also makes enough to feed a small army. It goes over well with adults at pitch-ins and family gatherings though. Little kids are kind of hit or miss. Some like it if it’s not too far removed from Shells and Cheese, but if you’ve spiced it up, you might want to play it safe and have some boxed Velveeta on hand.  I definitely recommend using a disposeable pan since all that baked-on cheese is a killer to scrub off a regular pan.

1 lb Elbow macaroni
1/2 lb cheddar cheese, grated
1/2 lb jack or mozzarella, grated
1/2 lb pepper jack cheese, grated
2 cans cheddar or nacho cheese soup
1 can evaporated milk
2 eggs
pepper
garlic powder
celery salt
hot sauce (to taste)
1 or 2 tubs grated parmesan or romano cheese (not the kind that comes in a cardboard tube) to taste

Put on some cooking music (I prefer Sonia Dada, Aretha, or O.A.R. but whatever yanks your crank) and a big pot of water on the stove to boil. Pour yourself a glass of wine and groove to the tunes until the water is boiling then dump the noodles in, removing them before they reachal dente . They’ll finish cooking and pick up the rest of their liquid when it’s in the oven. Speaking of which, preheat the oven to 350.

While the macaroni’s cooking, crack the eggs into a bowl and add about half the can of evaporated milk. Use more if you like your mac a bit runnier.  Save the rest of the can for pouring into your coffee tomorrow morning. Beat the bejeesus out of the eggs and milk, then add the pepper, garlic powder, celery salt and hot sauce.  Don’t be shy with the spices. You’re seasoning a big ass mess of mac & cheese so it’ll absorb alot of spices before it gets overpowering. 

Take another sip or two of wine and drain the noodles. Put them back into the pot. Add the two cans of cheese soup and mix them in to coat the noodles. Toss in a handful or two of the parmesan or romano and keep mixing.

Pour the egg and milk mixture into the pot an cook on medium heat for about 5 minutes stirring like crazy the whole time.

Spread a layer of the macaroni mixture over the bottom of a big disposable aluminum baking pan and cover it with a layer of the grated cheddar and mozzarella or jack cheeses. Repeat the layers, making sure that the top is really covered with grated cheese. Put it in the oven and bake for about 35 minutes or until the top is all brown and bubbly.  If you haven’t finished off your glass of wine, do it now so you can bake along with the mac ‘n’ cheese.  Toss the pepper jack on top along with another handful or two of the grated Parmesan or Romano and bake for another 10 minutes or so, until it’s brown and bubbly again.

Take it out of the oven and let sit for around five minutes, then serve it up hot and chow down.

Variations:

It’s mac n cheese--a tabula rasa for your creative experients, but here’s a few that have worked for me.  Add a layer of spinach between the first and second layers of noodles.

Stir some diced ham, peas or chopped asparagus into the pot of noodles before putting it into the baking pan. Diced hot or sweet peppers peppers work really well when layered in also.

Add some strips of bacon on top of the cheese before baking. 

Use italian spice blend and top with prosciutto, throwing some sun-dried tomatoes on top towards the end of the baking time.

Or--if you want to go the opposite direction and be healthy, substitute egg beaters or lowfat/nonfat cheese.  You won’t notice the difference, honest. 

Posted by Mike on Saturday, March 03, 2007 at 02:43 PM
Filed in: Sides • ◊ Permalink
Comments (0)

Page 1 of 1 pages