World's Best Baked Mac & Cheese

I'm pretty certain my youngest step-daughter made us the best baked mac & cheese recipe ever for dinner last night!  

She searched Googled and stumbled upon a recipe featured on CHOW from a restaurant in California called Homeroom, turns out making Mac & Cheese is their specialty. I might book a vacation for us to Cali just to go to this magical mac & cheese restaurant! 

We couldn't locate the grated Pecorino Romano cheese (well, because I just realized we were looking in the wrong place!) that the recipe called for, so instead we used a shredded Italian blend that included Romano. It still turned out really amazing, and who knows maybe it turned out even better than the original recipe! 

You start the recipe by making a white sauce, called a béchamel. Next you stir in your measured amount of cheeses (grated Romano or shredded Italian blend plus shredded aged sharp cheddar) and cook over medium heat until melted. Then you pour in the cooked macaroni, mix together, pour it all into a baking dish, top it off with Panko bread crumbs and bake it in the oven to complete the recipe. (You could also serve as is instead of baking it, but then it wouldn't be called baked mac & cheese!)

Ingredients: 

For the Béchamel

• 4 cups whole milk
• 8 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1 tbsp kosher salt

Other Ingredients: 

• Kosher Salt
• 1 lb elbow macaroni
• 3 cups shredded 6 months aged sharp cheddar cheese
• 1 cup shredded Italian blend cheese
• 2/3 Panko bread crumbs 

Directions: 

For the Béchamel

1. Heat milk in medium saucepan over medium-high heat until it comes to a simmer, turn off heat and set aside.
2. In a large saucepan, melt unsalted butter over medium heat. Add flour and whisk for about three minutes or until the mixture turns into a light brown color.  Remove from heat.
3. While whisking, slowly add the hot milk to the flour mixture until combined. (It may look thick when first added, but will thin out.)
4. Return the saucepan to medium heat and continue to whisk. Cook until the sauce thickens, about three minutes. Stir in 1 tablespoon of salt and season with additional salt if needed. Remove from heat and set aside.

To Complete the Recipe:

1. Place your oven rack in the middle and pre-heat to 400°F.
2. Back to the top of your stove, cook pasta in boiling salted water until it just about reaches al dente,  drain and rinse with cold water, and set aside. 
3. Place the saucepan of béchamel over medium heat and stir in both cheeses until melted. Pour in the pasta and continue cooking for about four minutes, stir occasional until the pasta is heated through. Next, pour all ingredients into a 3-quart baking dish, top off with Panko bread crumbs, and bake for about 30 minutes or until brown on top. 
4. Remove from oven, let cool for a minute or two and enjoy!

Recipe modified from CHOW

Do you have a go to mac & cheese recipe? I would love to hear about it and try it out, well let my step-daughter try it out while I assist! 

Thanks for stopping by, don't forget tomorrow is my first featured guest blogger in my new Love Your Body series, come back to show support for blogger Just Plain Marie.