How to make macaroni and cheese

What's the best way to make macaroni and cheese at home?

There's really no bad way to make macaroni and cheese. Any time you're combining pasta and cheese, the results are going to be pretty good.

That said, most macaroni and cheeses are really macaroni in cheese sauce. Simply melting cheese into macaroni does not produce a creamy, uniform coating . . . that's why there's Velveeta, Kraft's pasteurized prepared cheese product. Velveeta, whose first ingredients are milk, water, whey and milk protein concentrate (cheese doesn't really enter into it), melts magnificently into a gooey - but not too gooey - cheesy veil.

The Velveeta box contains a recipe that is, not surprisingly, rather heavy on the Velveeta. Here's my version:

 >>Don't feel like cooking? Try these great mac and cheese dishes at Long Island restaurants

STOVETOP MACARONI AND "CHEESE"

Salt

8 ounces elbow macaroni

8 ounces Velveeta (half a 1-pound block)

2 tablespoons milk

Pepper

1. Boil macaroni in salted water until it is just short of al dente.

2. Meanwhile, slice Velveeta and place most of the slices in saucepan with milk. Place drained macaroni in the saucepan and, over high heat, combine until Velveeta has melted and sauce has thickened slightly.

3. Turn off the heat and add remainder of Velveeta. Taste for salt and add pepper. Makes 2 to 4 servings.

Velveeta aside, making a cheese sauce to produce a proper macaroni and cheese is very easy: You cook flour in butter (that's a roux), then add milk to make a white sauce (that's a béchamel). Then you add the cheese and you've got a sauce Mornay. How do you like that, you made a roux, a béchamel and a Mornay!

The classic mac-and-cheese cheese is Cheddar, but other semihard, forcefully flavored cheeses (i.e. Colby, Monterey Jack, Asiago, Piave, Gruyère, Emmentaler, Jarlsberg) will work well - alone or in tandem. Really hard grating cheeses such as Parmesan or Pecorino Romano add a great flavor but must be combined with another cheese with better meltability.

I got the following recipe from Polly Talbott, proprietor of A la Carte Cooking School in Lynbrook. Talbott said that the secrets to creamy macaroni and cheese are selecting the right cheese (see above), shredding it so it melts quickly and evenly and not overheating it.

CREAMY BAKED MACARONI WITH THREE CHEESES

1 pound elbow macaroni

1 stick butter, divided

1 cup fresh bread crumbs

1/4 cup grated Parmesan

1/2 cup flour

5 cups milk, warmed

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

4 ounces Monterey Jack cheese, shredded and at room temperature

8 ounces sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded and at room temperature

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 13-by-9-inch baking dish. In boiling salted water, cook macaroni until al dente. Drain and set aside. While macaroni cooks, start on the next two steps:

2. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in medium skillet until sizzling; stir in bread crumbs and toss, toasting until browned. Remove from heat and place in a small bowl to cool slightly; stir in Parmesan. Set aside.

3. Melt remaining butter over medium heat; whisk in flour and cook, stirring, for about 1 minute. Gradually whisk in warm milk and cook, whisking constantly, until bubbling and thickened, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in salt, pepper, nutmeg. Let cool, stirring about 2 minutes, then stir in cheeses.

4. Combine sauce and cooked macaroni and pour into prepared baking dish. Sprinkle prepared bread crumbs over the top of the macaroni. Bake 10 minutes to heat thoroughly. Serve hot. When you reheat leftovers (if there are any), use a very low heat. Makes 6 to 8 servings.