Comfort Food: Macaroni and Cheese

Macaroni and cheese. Blue boxes, skinny little tubes swimming in creamy orange sauce, or thick elbow macaroni in bubbling, yellow goo, steaming from the oven in a casserole dish. Everyone agrees that this classic is pure comfort. Calories don’t even enter the picture--there are just too many.   

In America, most sources credit Thomas Jefferson with bringing the dish to this side of the pond after having been enchanted by it in Europe. He bought a pasta maker and cheese from Italy, and his daughter made the dish at the White House. Jefferson even served it at a State dinner in 1802. The Italians were the first to record a recipe for pasta and Parmesan, though, in the 1300s. The English were writing their own cookbook about the same time which included a dish called “makerouns,” a lasagna-type casserole layering fresh pasta with cheese and butter.

In 1937, as the US reeled from the Great Depression, Kraft Foods introduced the iconic Kraft Cheese and Macaroni when a salesman came up with it as a way to sell more cheese. Eight million boxes at 19 cents each were sold that year, and even today, Kraft sells one million boxes per day. It retained its popularity during World War II when meat was in short supply and became a household staple after that.

Of course there are many, many variations on the mac and cheese theme. Cheddar is the number one cheese used, but combining two or more cheeses is common. Choose cheeses with some bite, like sharp Cheddar, Fontina, or Gruyere to increase the cheesy flavors, so they aren’t lost in the milky sauce.

Some people add bacon, ham, tuna, ground beef, vegetables, mushrooms or any number of spices and herbs to bump it up, as long as it’s gooey and hot and sticks to the ribs.

I’m a purist and like the regular cheesy sauce on macaroni, baked in the oven casserole. For these photos, I used a super easy, basic recipe from the New York Times (click here) that can be added to or adjusted with little or no effort.

Others go for the low-fat versions. Boo on that—this is comfort food for snow-shoveling, snow-shoeing, “feed a cold,” and coming-home-from-a-tough-day days. And if you’ve had a REALLY tough day, this link to an article by The Huffington Post will give you a recipe combining TWO comfort foods: the Mac and Cheese Grilled Cheese Sandwich. There are also recipes for mac and cheese pizza, mac and cheese stuffed peppers and mac and cheese stuffed meatball sandwiches.

Hope you’ve enjoyed the comfort food series. Check out the wine pairing for macaroni and cheese in this week’s “Wine Pick” on the Wine page. For the next two weeks, come back for a tribute to amore, foods and wines of love.