Creamy Homemade Baked Mac and Cheese

Preheat oven to 325°F and grease a 3 qt (9x13 in) baking dish

PASTA: 1 lb dried elbow pasta
WATER: a large pot of salted water
BOILED: boil 1 minute less than the package says for al dente PASTA WATER
drain and drizzle with a little olive oil BOILED

CHEDDAR: 4 cups shredded medium cheddar
GRUYERE: 2 cups shredded Gruyere
TOSSED: toss together, then divide into 3 cups and two piles of 1 1/2 cups CHEDDAR GRUYERE

BUTTER: 1/2 cup unsalted butter
FLOUR: 1/2 cup all purpose flour
ROUX: melt the butter over med heat, whisk in the flour, and cook 1 minute BUTTER FLOUR
HALF: 2 1/2 cups half and half
MILK: 1 1/2 cups whole milk
THICK: pour in slowly, whisking constantly, then cook until very thick ROUX HALF MILK
SALT: 1/2 tbsp salt
PEPPER: 1/2 tsp black pepper
PAPRIKA: 1/4 tsp paprika
CHEESESAUCE: off the heat, stir in until melted and smooth THICK SALT PEPPER PAPRIKA TOSSED

MIXED: stir together until fully combined BOILED CHEESESAUCE
MIDDLE: 1 1/2 cups of the tossed cheese
LAYERED: spread half in the dish, scatter the cheese over, then add the rest MIXED MIDDLE
TOP: 1 1/2 cups of the tossed cheese
bake 15 minutes, until bubbly and lightly golden LAYERED TOP

Prep 20 minutes · Bake 15 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 lb dried elbow pasta
• ½ cup unsalted butter
• ½ cup all purpose flour
• 1½ cups whole milk
• 2½ cups half and half
• 4 cups shredded medium cheddar cheese, divided (measured after shredding)
• 2 cups shredded Gruyère cheese, divided (measured after shredding)
• ½ Tbsp salt
• ½ tsp black pepper
• ¼ tsp paprika (smoked paprika is the author's favorite)

The cheddar and Gruyère are shredded, tossed together, and the resulting six cups divided into three: 3 cups for the sauce, 1½ cups for the middle layer, 1½ cups for the top. The recipe suggests a 16 oz block of cheddar and roughly an 8 oz block of Gruyère to land on those volumes.

Notes

The thickness cue is the one to watch. The recipe asks for the sauce to be cooked "almost the consistency of a semi thinned out condensed soup" before any cheese goes in — thicker than a sauce you would pour. It has to be: a pound of pasta and three cups of cheese are about to loosen it, and then it spends 15 minutes in the oven.

Shred from a block. Both cheeses are specified by block weight and measured after shredding, which is a hint worth taking. Pre-shredded cheese is dusted with starch to stop it clumping in the bag, and that starch is what makes a cheese sauce turn grainy.

Cheese goes in off the heat. Two additions of 1½ cups, each stirred smooth before the next. Melting cheese into a sauce still on the burner is the other common way to break it.

325°F is deliberately low, and the bake is only 15 minutes — this is a recipe aimed at creamy rather than crusty. The author gives an alternative for the other preference: bake at 350-375°F for 20-30 minutes, then broil 2-5 minutes for a crunchier top and a firmer set.

From the author

Make ahead: assemble but do not bake, cool completely, cover tightly and refrigerate 1-2 days. Let the dish sit out for 30 minutes, then bake at the recipe temperature for 25-35 minutes until hot and bubbly.

Five-cheese variation: replace the cheddar and Gruyère with 2 cups cheddar, 1 cup Colby, 1 cup Muenster, 1½ cups Gruyère and ½ cup mozzarella.

Reading the diagram

The pasta and the sauce are built in parallel and meet at the mixing bowl, which is what the two tracks in the middle of the map are.

The cheese is where this recipe fights the format. Six cups are shredded and tossed as one pile, then split three ways — and a result here can feed exactly one later step, so a three-way split cannot be drawn. The card gives the divide step to the sauce, which takes the largest share, and the other two piles re-enter as their own rows, labelled as coming from the tossed cheese. The quantities are right and they arrive at the right moments; the single line from one bowl of cheese to three destinations is the part that is missing.