The weather this last week has been even worse than usual. Clouds, rain, frost, we’ve had it all. You could say it’s been right ‘driech’. It’s times like this I go back to childhood comforts and crave good old stodgy dinners.
Everyone who knows me knows that I am 100% a macaroni cheese addict. My Granny and my Auntie Wilma would always threaten me with that Scottish classic, “If ye eat any mare macaroni, you’ll turn into it”. It always seemed a ridiculous threat but as a child, there was always that small seed of doubt that it might actually happen… That said it was only enough to deter me for a week at the most and then I was up for a game of chance and ready for my next bowl!
The Perfect Mac and Cheese
I’m really fussy when it comes to mac and cheese.
Sure, a quick microwave version will fill a hole and do the trick for a quick fix. But when I think of mac and cheese what I really need is a really creamy, buttery portion with large macaroni shells. The type of serving you’d expect at a local pub, or even a building site canteen which surprisingly gave me hands down my favourite mac and cheese to date.
On top, a generous grating of some orange coloured cheese will do – red leicester is my go to. Grilled to finish it off is even better but don’t get fancy with it.
Panko breadcrumbs, chorizo, bacon bits… No thanks. Keep. It. Simple.
On the pizza...
The good news about my approach to the pizza is that I’m sticking with my advice above – keep it simple.
Don’t go to the faff of cooking a sauce and dirtying pots when you don’t need to. The only thing you need to cook for the topping is the pasta. Just boil and drain it like you normally would as per the instructions on the packet. If you’re going with a 12″ pizza, a couple of handfuls of pasta should do.
For the sauce I’m using my White Pizza Sauce as the foundation:
Scrape half a tub, approx 125g, of mascarpone cheese in to a bowl and press it down all over with a fork to break it up. It’s pretty clear at this stage that it is too thick and there’s no way you could spread this on fresh dough.
Add a teaspoon of olive oil and a tablespoon of water to the bowl and mix through with the fork to thin out the sauce. You may need an additional tablespoon. Continue to add water to thin it out. You want it to be similar to yoghurt in terms of thickness. Tip: Reserve some of the water you cooked you pasta in for this part.
Grate in around 20g of hard cheese, I like to use Grana Padano but others will do fine. Add this to the bowl and mix through. Finish off the sauce by grating or mincing 1 large clove of garlic and adding salt and black pepper to taste.
Now mix through your cooked pasta in the bowl and grate in additional cheeses to your taste. I went for some extra mature cheddar and gruyere.
Like the photo above, it will look a bit messy and unrefined but there’s no need to change anything. The mascarpone and blend of cheese will melt in the oven and produce a smooth, buttery finish.
The Final Pizza
Just the thought of the topping and the launch in the oven were giving me the fear with this one.
I have been experimenting with sourdough and plan to post some pizzas soon but for now I’ve gone with my Poolish Pizza Dough recipe as it’s tried and trusted and I had confidence that the dough would hold under the weight of the stodge!
Topping
After stretching the dough, I topped by hand with the white sauce / pasta mix to make sure it all went on in a nice, single layer to distribute the weight evenly for a smooth launch… fingers crossed.
After this initial topping, I scattered more red leicester over the top to get that familiar orange, bubbly topping once baked.
The Bake
A long nervous walk from the back door to the pizza oven at -1°C, and a very deep breath… and the pizza was successfully launched.
* Sigh of relief *
A few spins and 1 ½ minutes later and it was on the plate, looking like that familiar bowl of comforting mac and cheese.
The Verdict
Amazing! If I say so myself…
Granted this won’t be to everyone’s taste but it’s the ultimate comfort food – a blend of my childhood (and adult) go to meal, and my current passion of pizza making.
I won’t be making it on the regular, but I can see it returning whenever it’s cold enough, everything seems a bit dull, and you need that fix of stodge.
