This recipe for Easy Peasy Macaroni Cheese (-y as we call it in our house) is adapted from Lisa Faulkner’s recipe in her cookbook “From My Mother to my Daughter“. It includes leek and Worcester sauce for extra flavour and breadcrumbs for a crunchy topping.

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Macaroni cheese is one of life’s comfort foods. It’s also a good standby family dinner, as you can prep it in advance, then stick in the oven 30 mins before you need to eat.

Easy Peasy Macaroni Cheese (y)

This recipe serves 4-6.

Ingredients

• 300g macaroni
• 75g pancetta, cubed (or bacon)
• 2 leeks, trimmed and thinly sliced
• 50g butter
• 50g plain flour
• 600ml milk
• 1 tsp mustard powder
• a dash of Worcestershire sauce (like Lea & Perrins)
• 225g cheddar cheese, grated
• 75g parmesan cheese, grated
• 65g breadcrumbs
• salt and pepper

Method

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 5/190 degrees. Cook the macaroni for 10 minutes in salted water, then drain.
2. Meanwhile, in a small frying pan, brown the pancetta over a medium heat, add the leeks and fry until softened. Set aside.
3. Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the flour, beating with a wooden spoon to form a roux. Cook this for a couple of minutes, stirring constantly.
4. Add the milk gradually, stirring all the time until the sauce has thickened. Add the mustard powder, Worcestershire sauce and salt & pepper. Take the pan off the heat and stir in the cheeses (saving a little to sprinkle on top)
5. Mix the leeks and pancetta into the macaroni then spoon into an ovenproof dish. Pour over the cheese sauce and sprinkle over the breadcrumbs. (My sauce was quite thick so I mixed the sauce with the macaroni, leeks and pancetta, and then spooned into the dish – I’m sure the other way works just as well though!)
6. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes, until bubbling and crisp on top.

You might also enjoy Spinach Cheese Souffle and Pasta with Bacon, Peas and Cream

This macaroni cheese also freezes well. My top tip here is to wrap any portions in greaseproof or baking paper rather than tin foil for freezing, as tin foil tends to do that weird tiny-bits-coming-off thing when it defrosts.

Over to you now! Have you got a stand by macaroni cheese recipe? Share it with us in the comments below.