MACARONI CHEESE WITH SOFT-BOILED EGGS
I’VE added a few twists to this much-loved dish to make it extremely special. Of course, cheese is usually mixed into the béchamel sauce, but that makes it gloopy, and the flavours aren’t defined, so I don’t add cheese to the sauce, but use it to layer the dish instead. The softboiled eggs are celebratory and won’t take you long, but they are optional. On BBC Maestro (see overleaf), watch me take the dish to a place it’s never been before, combining it with another Italian classic in Macaroni Cheese With Ragù Bolognese.
Serves 8
● 750 g (1 lb 10 oz) macaroni
● Dash of olive oil
● 8 medium eggs (optional)
● 450 g (1 lb) Parmesan cheese, grated
● Chopped fresh herbs of your choice, to garnish
For the béchamel sauce
● 90g (3 ¼ oz) unsalted butter
● 75g (2 ¾ oz) plain flour
● 1.5 ltr (2 ¾ pt) whole milk
● 150 ml (¼ pt) double cream
● 1 bay leaf l Salt and white pepper
● Freshly grated nutmeg, to your taste
For the topping
● 40 g (1½ oz) panko breadcrumbs, blended to a powder
● 75 g (2¾ oz) Parmesan cheese, grated
TO MAKE the béchamel sauce, melt the butter in a saucepan over a low-medium heat, add the flour and stir with a wooden spoon for five minutes, to cook out the flour. Pour in the milk, whisking constantly. add the cream, bay leaf, and season with salt and white pepper. Grate in a little nutmeg, to your taste. keep whisking on a low-medium heat for ten to 15 minutes, until it thickens slightly. You don’t want the sauce to be too thick — it should be quite light because it will be thickened by the starch in the pasta.
In a separate saucepan, cook the macaroni in boiling salted water until it is al dente (with a slight bite to it). Drain the macaroni, and add a dash of olive oil. With the macaroni in a colander, work the pasta with a wooden spoon for a minute or so, to get the water out of it. Now mix the pasta with the béchamel sauce, stirring with a wooden spoon to make sure it’s well coated.
For the soft-boiled eggs, if using, bring a saucepan of salted water to the boil and gently place the eggs into the pan. Cook for five minutes and 15 seconds. remove them from the pan and, once they are cool enough to touch, peel and set to one side.
Preheat the grill to high. In a large, deep, ovenproof serving dish, arrange the macaroni cheese like this: one-third of the Parmesan on the base of the dish; then one-third of the sauce- covered pasta; another third of the Parmesan; another third of the pasta; the remaining Parmesan; the remaining pasta.
For the topping, mix the blended breadcrumbs and Parmesan together and scatter the mixture over the top. transfer the dish to the floor of the grill and brown until golden, or to your liking. alternatively, bake in an oven preheated to 160c/fan 140c/gas 3. If using, arrange the soft-boiled eggs around the top of the macaroni cheese. Garnish with chopped herbs and serve immediately.