Fancy-Pants Macaroni and Cheese

Three Cheese Macaroni and Cheese:
From Cooking Light Magazine

1 teaspoon olive oil
1 cup finely chopped onion (about 1 medium)
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 garlic clove, minced
1 1/2 cups 1% low-fat milk
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup (2 ounces) crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
3/4 cup (3 ounces) grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, divided
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups uncooked elbow macaroni (about 8 ounces)
Cooking spray
2/3 cup (about 2 1/2 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
2/3 cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1. Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add onion to pan; cook 8 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally. Add flour and garlic; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Stir in milk and bay leaf; bring to a boil. Cook 2 minutes or until thick, stirring constantly with a whisk. Add Gorgonzola, 1/2 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano, and salt; stir until cheeses melt. Discard bay leaf.

2. Preheat oven to 375°.

3. Cook pasta in boiling water 5 minutes or until almost tender, omitting salt and fat; drain well. Add pasta to cheese mixture, stirring well. Place about 1/2 cup pasta mixture into each of 6 (1-cup) ramekins coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle evenly with mozzarella. Top evenly with remaining pasta mixture. Combine remaining 1/4 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano and panko; sprinkle evenly over pasta mixture. Spray lightly with cooking spray; sprinkle with black pepper. Bake at 375° for 25 minutes or until heated.

Yield: 6 servings (serving size: about 1 ramekin)

RESULTS: Chris wasn't too thrilled about the onions, to put it mildly, and I have to say, really not as good as the much easier version that's in my Spoon cookbook (although they of course call it Macaroni Au Gratin, because it's Italian). I'm posting that recipe below. One thing I was sort of shocked at is that the Spoon version might be healthier, or at least almost as good, as the Cooking Light. There's more butter in the Spoon one, but much much less cheese, especially considering CL calls for 2 cups of pasta and Spoon calls for 3 cups (meaning, the pasta:cheese ratio is higher for The Spoon, but it tastes better). I've even cut the butter from the Spoon version to little or no taste difference, and sometimes I leave in the egg yolks, but generally I'll take them out. I'll give you the cookbook version, and then my edits in parenthesis. It starts with a basic bechamel sauce and then you add the cheese and pasta.

Bechamel Sauce

Ingredients:
1/4 c butter (I want to try this with a combo of butter and oil, either canola or olive, but haven't gotten around to it yet. It's important in a bechamel sauce for the fat and the flour to be the same amount. Thickness is altered by changing the amount of milk/water/cream)
1/4 c all purpose flour
2 1/4 c milk
pinch of freshly grated nutmeg (optional)
salt and pepper

Melt the butter in a pan over medium heat. Whisk in the flour. Pour in all the milk, whisking constantly until it starts to boil. Season with sale, lower the heat, cover and simmer gently, stirring occasionally, for at least 20 minutes. The sauce should not taste floury (which is why you simmer for so long). Remove from heat and season with salt if necessary, pepper, and/or nutmeg. If sauce is too thick, add a little more milk. If too runny, add a pat of butter mixed with an equal amount of flour. For a lighter bechamel sauce, replace some of the milk with water.


Macaroni Au Gratin

Ingredients
2 Tbls butter, plus extra for greasing (I do grease the pan with butter or olive oil, but I tend to leave out the 2 Tbls)
Bechamel sauce made above
2/3 cup cheese (the cookbook recommends Parmesan, but whatever you want)
2 egg yolks (I tend to leave these out)
3 cups macaroni
salt

Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Grease an ovenproof dish with butter (the top of the dish gets really nice and lovely brown, and it tastes really good, so I try to go with the widest pan possible). Combine the bechamel sauce, cheese, butter and egg yolks. Boil pasta until just al dente, then drain and tip into a bowl. Gently stir in half of the bechamel sauce mixture and put in the prepared dish, then spoon the remaining bechamel sauce mixture on top. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.

RESULTS: This may be one of my favorite dishes, it's very delicious. Chris likes it too, and it has no onions.