Mac ‘n’ cheese: An old dish that learns new tricks

During the last week of winter break, the average daily temperature hovered around freezing before dropping below 20 degrees Thursday. This was quite a shock to my immune system, since I’d been baking in the 80-degree Florida heat just a few days before. While I dined on fresh seafood and sipped fruit and rum cocktails, I didn’t give much thought to warm, fat-filled “comfort foods.”

But when my vacation was over and the fickle Indiana winter came out to play, throwing snowstorms as well as rain and ice, I wandered into my kitchen to cook up one of my most favorite and comforting recipes, macaroni and cheese.

There’s a legend that the macaroni noodles were brought to Italy from China by Marco Polo, though many historians point to the Sicilians and Arabs as the most plausible inventors of dry pasta. Cheese was added by the Italians, and the combination grew in popularity among the aristocracy during the Renaissance. Macaroni and cheese was all over Europe by 1700s, and in the 1800s, recipes started appearing in mass-produced cookbooks.

Mac and cheese hit America most heavily in the South and has been a tradition in black kitchens for decades. It was a favorite of Thomas Jefferson, who made macaroni and cheese a staple at the White House. According to historians, he picked up the habit in France while serving as ambassador.

The boxed Kraft version became a household name during World War II, when many women entered the workforce and needed ready-made meals for their families.

All tradition aside, when I was little my favorite macaroni and cheese came out of that blue box. My best friend’s mom used to make it really thin, so it was almost macaroni and cheese soup. Since then, my tastes have matured a little to include wobbly blocks of American cheese, as well as all kinds of actual hard and soft cheeses, different types of pasta and a library of embellishments.

Macaroni and cheese is great for that very reason – not only is it easy to make, it’s versatile. As long as there is pasta and cheese involved, almost anything can be added to the mix to make something scrumptious. I’ve seen versions with ingredients like condensed milk, mustard seed, tomatoes, yogurt, ham, turkey – even smoky flavoring and curry. You can eat it baked and browned or gooey and chewy.

The moral of macaroni and cheese’s story is that although it’s an old tradition, there’s no right or wrong way to create this comfort food. The only essential is that it makes the eater feel warm and happy on a cold winter day.

My macaroni and cheese
(serves four)
2 cups of macaroni noodles
1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. red pepper
5 cranks of ground black pepper
4 oz. Velveeta or similar cheese
2 cups milk
1 tbsp. butter

Put the chopped onions in while you’re boiling the macaroni. Strain those and add the rest of the ingredients all at once. Let the mixture sit on a low setting until everything is melted together. You can add more or less red and black pepper based on how much you like spicy food.

Usually I bake this uncovered in a 2 qt. baking dish for about 50 minutes at 350 degrees. However, I sometimes eat it without baking because I like my noodles swimming in cheese.