Stove top macaroni and cheese (béchamel base) When the cheese sauce is thick and creamy, add the macaroni and paprika and toss until combined. Add the milk (or cream) and raise heat to medium-high. Once melted add the garlic and sauté until fragrant. 6 cups macaroni, cooked (about 4 to 4 ½ cups uncooked)ĭirections: Place butter in saucepan over medium heat.Saltwire food critic recommends making Gruyere from Switzerland part of your homemade macaroni and cheese recipe. Of course, you can make a stove top version, and many do, without the béchamel, but will it be as creamy and silken as a béchamel version? The former is made by whisking hot milk into a roux (equal amounts of flour and fat), while the latter takes it one step further by adding cheese to béchamel sauce. While some of the earliest recipes were baked pastas, many modern classic recipes call for béchamel or mornay base. With cheddar produced and loved in England for centuries, it makes logical sense any English versions of the dish would evolve from Parmesan to the quintessential English cheese, and our North American interpretation based on the English evolution of the dish. The first mention of a recipe resembling present day macaroni in an English cookbook is 1769 (The Experienced English Housekeeper), which described a baked dish consisting of macaroni and Parmesan. While I have no intent to make my own macaroni - the idea of rolling out fresh pasta dough only to painstakingly roll pieces of the dough around skewers or another long, thin, tubular object before bending into the classic elbow shape seems tedious even for the most dedicated food lover - I did test three versions of macaroni and three cheese combinations. That dish migrated to England over the course of a century and is mentioned in the Forme of Cury (1390), the oldest English cookbook. A recipe of a more lasagna-like dish, made from noodles and cheese, was mentioned in the 13th Century Italian and French co-authored cookbook, Liber de Coquina. Given the connection between what is now Northern Italy, Switzerland and France, there is little reason to doubt the Italian dish became a favourite of this Alpine nation.Īs for our love of macaroni and cheese in North America, we can likely credit the British. The Swiss have a dish called Älplermagronen, made from a macaroni-like pasta, cream and Gruyere cheese.
Beeton’s Book of Household Management credits Naples for the recipe (a cheese-less version) featured in the book, there is other evidence to suggest the dish has more central and northern Italian roots, spreading north through Italy and across the alps thanks to Catherine of Medici. Although the classic Victorian cookbook Mrs. While the word "macaroni" can be traced back to the Greek (colonizers of Naples) word macaria, used to describe a dish made from a barley flour-based pasta, there is little additional evidence to suggest the tube-like pasta we associate with the dish originated in Naples. Parmesan is not an Alpine cheese, but it’s inclusion in historical recipes suggests it should be included in the study.Īs for our love of macaroni and cheese in North America, we can likely credit the British. With strong evidence to suggest the dish has Alpine roots, I’ve decided to test mine using cheddar, Gruyere and Parmesan. Saltwire foodie Mark DeWolf says both baked and stovetop macaroni and cheese recipes are equally satisfying. Yet, while we undoubtedly popularized a cheddar-based dish, a little online research suggests the origins of the dish are Italian or Swiss (although historically the parts of each country have been one at times). Magical orange powder aside, I asked myself whether the actual choice of cheese was at the core of a great macaroni and cheese? Or is it the cooking method? Does the pasta make a difference? Should I add items like bacon or lobster?īy most North American accounts, cheddar is the essential ingredient of macaroni and cheese.