Old-fashioned Mac and Cheese

Here's a dish that will warm you up on a cold winter's day. It is also a recipe that you can really play around with; change up the ingredients depending on the dairy products and pasta that you have available. When making pasta dishes, it is important to choose a pasta shape and sauce that complement each other. Thin, delicate pastas like angel hair or thin spaghetti, should be served with light, thin sauces. Thicker pasta shapes, like fettuccine, work well with heavier sauces. Pasta shapes with holes or ridges like mostaccioli or radiatore, are perfect for chunkier sauces. I happened to use cavatappi (“corkscrew” pasta); the tight spiral locks in flavor allowing the shape to pair with both simple and sophisticated sauces.

Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup of butter
- 1/4 cup of flour
- 1 cup of 10% butterfat cream (table cream)
- 1 cup of milk
- 3 cups of shredded mixed cheese (for example, cheddar, Monterrey Jack, mozzarella)
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 cup of crushed crackers, whatever you happen to have in your cupboard
- 1/2 cup of grated Parmesan
- about 8 ounces of cavatappi

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Heat a large pot of salted water until boiling, then add the pasta and cook until al dente. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a saucepan on the stove over medium heat and whisk in the flour. Add the cream and milk and stir constantly until the mixture has thickened. ( This is typically called a white sauce). Stir in the shredded cheeses until they are melted and add salt and pepper to taste. Usually, the salt and pepper would be added to the white sauce to flavour it, but in this case it is best to wait until after the addition of the cheese, given the saltiness of some cheeses. Drain the pasta and stir the cheese mixture into it until everything is well combined. Place the pasta in a buttered ovenproof dish. Mix together the crushed crackers and grated Parmesan and sprinkle evenly over the top of the pasta. Bake until the "mac and cheese" is nicely browned and bubbling hot, about 20-30 minutes.