High Five Recipe: Creamy Mac and Cheese
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I’ve been searching my whole life (give or take) for a good homemade mac and cheese recipe. The recipes I’ve come up with in the past are decent….but not great.
A couple of months ago, a friend told me how she makes it. I adapted it a bit and now we can’t seem to get enough! It is THE creamiest mac and cheese ever.
Here’s the secret: Cook your pasta in MILK instead of water. The milk makes it super creamy. The starch from the pasta thickens the milk into a sauce. Add your cheese after the pasta is finished cooking.
Uh-huh…comfort food at it’s best.
Creamy Mac and Cheese
2 1/2 cups whole wheat pasta
3 cups whole milk
1/2 t. sea salt
1 cup shredded cheese (I use white cheddar)
Mix pasta, milk and salt in a large sauce pan. Cook over medium-high heat STIRRING ALMOST CONSTANTLY until the pasta is tender (10-15 minutes). Remove from heat. Add cheese and stir until melted. Serve immediately.
You can use any shape of pasta you want. I have found that elbow noodles cook quite a bit faster so I use those when I need a quick lunch.
Everytime I make this, we can not believe how creamy and delicious it is. My lifelong search for awesome homemade macaroni and cheese has come to an end. We should have some sort of mac and cheese ceremony.
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Which High Five Recipe would you like to see next?! Lime Avocado Dip…or Justus’ Shaved Ice?
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Has anyone tried this with rice pasta? DO you get the same results?
Thanks so much!
~cynthia
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Laura Reply:
November 9th, 2011 at 1:00 pm
I have actually tried this with Tinkyada Rice Pasta when we were doing a gluten free experiment and it worked great!!!
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Leslie Reply:
January 25th, 2012 at 12:16 pm
I did too. I only buy Tinkyada. It is the best!!! :) …good luck, it is delicious.
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Oh I am soooo excited! I have been looking for a GF mac and cheese recipe that didn’t ask for a bunch of processed cheese. I’ll be trying this one this weekend!
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What an awesome recipe! I cannot wait to give this a try! I have tried so hard to make a whole wheat pasta macaroni without success. This is sure to be a hit!
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mmmmmmm I just made this with salsa and olives. yum. I was wondering if your recipes freezes well.
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LindseyforLaura@HHM Reply:
December 7th, 2011 at 8:15 pm
Unfortunately, it does not. :(
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Following directions is important. I had to make this twice because the first time I added the cheese while the milk was boiling and I added mozzerella cheese, as well as cheddar. Whether it was the Moz. or the fact that I didn’t remove the pot from the heat, everything clumped up nasty. I threw that out and tried again, adding the cheese after the pasta was done, and just added cheddar and it turned out great!!!
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Yummm this is great!!
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Can I sub 2% milk instead of whole?
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Laura Reply:
December 28th, 2011 at 7:15 am
I think it should work fine, but I’ve never tried it myself to know for sure.
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Lori Reply:
January 2nd, 2012 at 6:26 pm
This is my first recipe of Laura’s to try. I made it with 2% and it worked great. I am so thankful for this recipe. I had almost written mac n cheese off!
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How does this do as leftover is it still as creamy? I’m trying this recipe tonite
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Laura Reply:
January 12th, 2012 at 7:20 pm
I find that it works best to reheat if I add a little milk to it on the stove and heat it up that way. Then it stays creamy, or rather, becomes creamy again. :)
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Wow, that’s a lot of milk all at once for my family of 7. We’re cheap with milk since the good stuff is so expensive. What do you think of half milk half water? I think this looks like a great special treat – we haven’t had mac n cheese in a long time.
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Laura Reply:
January 13th, 2012 at 10:58 am
I’ve never tried it that way but I think it might work!
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Laura Reply:
January 23rd, 2012 at 4:32 pm
I water mine down all the time and it works just fine.
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Any idea if almond milk would work?
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Laura Reply:
January 16th, 2012 at 10:42 am
I can’t say for sure since I’ve never tried it, but I think it would probably work if you’ve had success subbing almond milk in other recipes.
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I think, for those wondering about lower fat recipes, that if you add some butter or margarine it should make the sauce just as great. I do this when I make recipes with milk that need to be rich and creamy, like alfredo or scalloped potatoes, because its cheaper than buying whole milk, which we never drink.
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Do you use raw milk and cheese from raw milk when you make a recipe like this or just organic milk? What would you recommend for someone who doesn’t have access to (that much) affordable raw milk? Thanks in advance for your response. I am new to healthy eating, trying to make a change or two a month. I am guess that just switching from a processed, box mac & cheese to making this with organic products would be a start!
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Laura Reply:
January 17th, 2012 at 3:46 pm
I do use raw, organic milk in this recipe, but if that isn’t available to you, I would use store bought organic milk instead. :)
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Laura Reply:
January 23rd, 2012 at 4:31 pm
I’ve made this with regular milk and cheese when I wasn’t able to get raw milk and raw cheese. It worked out just fime.
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Made this tonight. LOOOOOVED it! Thanks so much!
~bree~
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Have you ever tried this with a Quinoa Pasta? I use the Quinoa pastas with most every other pasta recipe I make and would love to use it for Mac N Cheese. My kids love Mac N Cheese and I would love for this to be our go to alternative to even the organic whole wheat boxed stuff!
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Laura Reply:
January 26th, 2012 at 1:04 pm
No, I haven’t. But I have used rice pasta and it worked great!
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Do you heat the milk first, like you would with water, or start it all cold from the start?
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Laura Reply:
January 29th, 2012 at 9:39 pm
Nope, just start it all cold and let it heat/cook together!
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This is just like those store-bought hamburger helper/rice-a-roni things, but much better. They always have you add milk and water. I had to keep adding more and more water, because for some reason with the milk it took the pasta twice as long to cook and it got way too thick. I think next time I’ll do 1/4 milk and 3/4 water and see how that goes. Even after adding all that water, as soon as it cooled down just a little, the sauce was thick and sticky, not creamy and smooth at all. Second time’s the charm, I hope!
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I just made this tonight and my boys loved it. The cheese didn’t get grainy like other recipes I’ve tried.
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