Weekly recipes coming from your favourite kitchen.
This week, The Green Kitchen shows you how to make a simple and delicious Macaroni and Cheese. Always a huge hit when on the menu is Greens! It’s a firm favourite among staff and students. We like to add a pesto crumb on top for an extra kick of flavour and adds a lovely crunch.
Ingredients
400g macaroni
Glug of olive oil for the cooked pasta
60g unsalted butter
60g plain flour
1.3 litres whole milk
1 tbsp dijon mustard
100g mature cheddar, grated, plus 30g for the topping
100g gruyère (or vegetarian hard cheese), grated
Pesto Topping Ingredients
40g gruyère (or vegetarian hard cheese), plus a handful extra
Handful fresh basil leaves
Handful fresh parsley leaves 3 tbsp olive oil
½ garlic clove, crushed
Juice ½ lemon
30g fresh breadcrumbs
Method
1) Heat the oven to 200oc/180oc fan. bring a large pan of salted water to the boil, then add the macaroni, boil for 5-6 mins. You don't want to over cook the pasta it should still have a bite to it as it will cook more when in the oven. drain the pasta and then toss in a little olive oil to stop it from clumping together.
2) Melt the butter in a pan over a medium heat and add the flour, stir it to form a roux. Cook for 3-4 mins until you get a smell of biscuits, this will tell you the flour has cooked out and wont flavour the sauce. Remove the roux from the heat and gradually whisk in the milk to form a lump free white sauce. Put the sauce back on the heat and whisk until the sauce starts to thicken - make sure the sauce doesn't catch on the bottom of the pan. Once the sauce starts to bubble swap the whisk for a wooden spoon, stir in the mustard and the cheese and cook gently for 5 mins and season to taste.
3) Put all the pesto ingredients (except the cheese in to a food processor and blitz.
4) Stir the white sauce in to your cooked pasta and add to a 2 litre dish, sprinkle the top with the grated cheese and pesto crumb, pop in the oven and cook for 30-35 mins until golden and bubbling.
