Mac and cheese

This is a simple to prepare and very tasty dish that can be made well in advance, feed a huge amount of people and provide yummy leftovers for the next day...or later in the evening when you get the munchies.

I don't use actual macaroni in mine as it's a bit small and I prefer something like spirali.  Spirali is a small sized ridged tube of pasta curled into a spiral shape...doh!  At the end of the day it's all the same stuff so the choice of pasta type is yours but something with a hole in it is better for the cheesy sauce with chunky bits in it.

The pasta is cooked in well salted water.  I used about 800g for the four of us with plenty left over.  Once cooked, drain and set aside...but you can crack on with the rest of the dish while it's cooking.

In a pan I sweated a large chopped onion in a little olive oil, one finely chopped garlic clove and half a dozen rashers of unsmoked streaky bacon cut into small pieces.  Once cooked through set aside.

The cheese sauce is a roux.  I used about 30g of unsalted butter (the bacon seasons the dish enough for me) and about the same quantity of plain flour.  I melted the butter and stirred in the flour until smooth.  This I cooked though for a couple of minutes to cook out the flour taste.  Stirring almost continuously to avoid the dreaded lumps I added milk until the sauce was nice and silky and coated the back of a spoon.  I made its little looser than normal as the later addition of cheese thickens it a fair bit.

Once done I added a good teaspoon of English mustard and a couple of handfuls of extra mature cheddar (always on offer in Sainsbury's and always in the fridge!).  Stirred through until smooth and creamy.  Don't worry if you get a few lumps.  Always use a stainless steel pan and so a good last minute whisk, if needed, won't damage your non-stick surface!

The onion/bacon mixture and sauce is added to the drained pasta and stirred in well.  Into an oiled or buttered, shallow oven-proof dish and set aside until you're ready to cook it.

I pre-heated the oven to 180*,  covered the dish with a couple of handfuls of cheddar/parmesan mix (to get a good cheese coating) and cooked until golden brown on top and heated right through...about 30 minutes or so.  On serving up give it a good grate of black pepper so you get that lovely crunchy bite.

I served this with some steamed broccoli.

Job done!