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Bento Friday

Grandma's Mac and Cheese

·410 words
Pasta Cheese Butter Milk

Grandma’s Mac and Cheese
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My grandma was not a great cook, but she always made hard dishes for her grandkids. I loved getting to have her macaroni and cheese on my birthday. As a grown adult, I understand some of the ingredients are subpar, but it is that comforting taste of childhood I often go back to. I’ve made this dish with normal pasta and with Barilla protein+ pasta. It works with either.

For this recipe, a stoneware baking dish is highly recommended. I was fortunate enough to actually get my grandma’s when she passed, but you want the heavy duty kind dish. I prefer deep and round but feel free to use what you have.

Ingredients
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  • 1 lb of pasta (elbow macaroni, shells, calvatappi, or rottini are all good chocies)
  • 1 full sized block of velveeta
  • Half a stick of salted butter
  • Salt for the water
  • Whole milk
  • Cooking spray or oil for baking dish

Steps
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  1. Preheat oven to 350F with a lipped pan on a rack directly below your center rack.
  2. Add salt to a pot, then add a bit more salt, and fill with enough water to properly boil the pasta.
  3. Bring the water to a roiling boil.
  4. Add pasta and cook per manufacturer’s instructions. For this, I usually aim to cook it right in the middle of the length of time given. (ie: for a given range of 8-10 minutes, I cook it for 9).
  5. While the water is heating and/or pasta is cooking, cube your velveeta.
  6. Slice your butter about 1/4" thick. This doesn’t have to be precise but you want it on the thinner side.
  7. Once the pasta is done cooking, drain the water.
  8. Spray/oil up your baking dish.
  9. Put a a few pieces of butter and cubes on the bottom of the baking dish.
  10. Put a layer of pasta on top, it doesn’t have to cover completely.
  11. Continue alternating layers until everything is in the dish.
  12. Pour in whole milk until it comes up to the top (and preferably covers) the layers.
  13. Put the dish into the oven and cook for 10-15 minutes.
  14. Pull it out and give it a stir. Push everything back below the milk level if possible.
  15. Put back in the oven and cook for another 40-60 minutes. If you’re lucky, brown (not burnt) spots will form on the top of the liquid.
  16. Remove from oven. Give a stir. Let stand for about 5-10 minutes to thicken.