Confessions of a Cheese-aholic

I add cheese to almost everything I eat... which has proved challenging for my poor lactose intolerant boyfriend. But in the name of practicing my mother sauces, he has selflessly sacrificed himself to my mac and cheese experiments. Way to take one for the team, Matt.

Mac and cheese is essentially a derivative of the mother sauce béchamel. The basis for béchamel, and all mother sauces for that matter, is roux. Equal parts fat (butter, oil, whatever you want) and flour, roux is most famously the base for your lumpy Thanksgiving gravy. For your own personal edification, there are 3 types of roux: white, blond, and brown (examples: white for béchamel, blond for gravy, brown for gumbo). But, fear not! Below is a mac and cheese I made tonight. And while I am admittedly not reinventing the wheel here, it is my own recipe!

Now, I'm all for eating healthy, but you know you want to eat this and, I promise, it's fool proof.

Ingredients:

For the sauce: 

• Milk                                               2.5 cups
• Flour                                              2.5 tbs.
• Bacon or Pancetta fat                 2.5 tbs.
• Gruyere                                         2 oz.
• Parmigiano-Reggiano                 1 oz.
• Extra sharp white cheddar         2 oz.
• Thyme                                           1 sprig
• Salt/Pepper                                   To taste     

• Pasta                                             1/2 lb.

Toppings:

• Pancetta/Bacon                          1/4 lb.
• Gruyere                                        1 oz.
• Parmigiano-Reggiano               1 oz.
• Extra sharp white cheddar       1 oz.
• Thyme (chopped)                       Garnish
• Bread crumbs (optional)           A handful

Instructions:

1. Get the pasta going (you all know how to boil pasta) and pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2. In a separate pot you can start the béchamel. First, you will need to render the bacon/pancetta fat. How do you do that? LOW heat until you can liquefy as much fat as you can (you can drop in a bit of oil or butter to help get you started). Once you do that you can crisp it up.
3. Take the bits out of the pot, leaving about 2.5 tbs. of fat in and add the flour (if you don't have enough fat just add butter). Now pay attention. Stir, don't whisk, for a few minutes (continuously - you don't want it to burn). The mixture should look a bit like sand.
4. Once you've got that down add cool/not hot milk (this is key and I think where most people go wrong) and whisk whisk whisk! Beware! Do NOT let this boil - a gentle and brief simmer is ok, but you don't want the milk to curdle. So your goal here is to whisk until it becomes thick and take it off the heat.
5. Then you can add your cheeses, thyme, and season with salt and pepper. Stir until the cheese has all melted. 
6. Cook the pasta al dente and combine with the cheese sauce, put in a casserole dish, top it with the extra cheese, bacon/pancetta, thyme, and/or some breadcrumbs, and bake until the cheese on top is bubbly and crunchy (about 15 min).

If you're making this ahead of time you can do everything up to the point of putting it in the oven and refrigerate. Honestly, the hardest part is making the roux and it's really not that hard at all (and it takes no more than 5 minutes). Give it a try!

Oh, and one last confession I have to get off my chest. I killed another lobster on Friday. I don't want to talk about it.