Easy Mac n’ Cheese, LoLo Style

Not to be confused with Myrnie’s recipe for Easy Macaroni and Cheese.

This? Is my go-to macaroni and cheese recipe. I love it because it uses one pot, one colander, mug, whisk and a wooden spoon. Also? The sauce isn’t thickened with flour. Flour’s fine, but I always get the proportions wrong, and it has to cook for a good five minutes before you know if you got it right or not. And then it’s hard to fix.

This recipe is thickened with cornstarch, or tapioca starch. Hello, instant gratification! (Oh, and the kidlets all love it.

 

Easy Mac n’ Cheese, LoLo Style

Ingredients:

Salted water

1 pound pasta (macaroni, rigatoni, Seattle Space Needle…whatever)

Cornstarch, or tapioca flour

Milk

Grated Cheddar cheese.

 

Tools:

Soup pot

Wooden spoon

Whisk

Mug

Colander

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and cook one pound of pasta.  While the pasta is cooking. put a colander and a mug in the sink. When it’s cooked just right, head over to the sink. First pour the water over the mug to fill it, and then drain the rest of the pasta into the colander. Let it just chill out in the sink for a second.

 

Swing by the cupboard and grab the cornstarch (or tapioca starch). Stop by the refrigerator and grab the milk and a bag of shredded cheddar cheese.

Now you’re back at the stove, whisk in hand. Make sure your milk, cheese, starch and that mug of water from the sink are handy. Pour in enough milk to cover the bottom of the pot by about 1/2”. Then put in two heaping spoonfuls of your cornstarch. Turn the heat to medium, and whisk it up. It will be a little gloppy at first, but keep whisking until it’s smooth. When it’s smooth, start throwing in handfuls of cheese. You might want to switch back to the wooden spoon at this point. It takes quite a bit of cheese to make a tasty pasta…four of five handfuls. If it gets too thick, thin it down with the pasta water, or a little more milk.

Finally, dump your pasta back into the pot and stir to coat. Kill the heat, and VOILA! Easy, sheeny, cheesy yummy macaroni and cheese.