Macaroni Cheese

August 6, 2002

Frequently I ask The Spouse what he would like for dinner. I really don't know why I ask. I suppose I am hoping for a burst of inspiration. One day he will call my bluff and request a pheasant breast nestled on a bed of lightly wilted bok choy sprinkled with a tasty verjuice and sesame dressing and teamed with garden fresh baby vegetables.

When we were first married, I asked about weekend breakfast preferences and he confided that he was partial to black pudding - known in some parts of the world as blood sausage. My grandfather was a great black pudding man and I would frequently go home from a visit to his place with a prized piece of sausage to gnaw on the journey. So The Spouse was a closet pudding man - what a find!

Anyway, after about six months of black pudding Sundays he gently hinted he wouldn't mind a change of diet.

Sometimes I ask because I am secretly hoping he will request something quick and simple - scrambled eggs on toast, a pot of yoghurt, "Nothing, I'm not hungry." Those are the days when he suggests a roast dinner with the trimmings.

Other days he runs through a wish list only to be told I have none of the requisite ingredients, and he is left wondering out loud why I asked. More recently I've noticed he says things like: "What's on offer?" or "What were you proposing?" Probably to avoid disappointment.

Occasionally I strike the jackpot and he volunteers to make his specialty, spag bol.

Last night when I popped the question he didn't waste time thinking "Macaroni cheese." He'd been visiting his mother in hospital the other day and that's what she had been eating for lunch and he decided it looked good.

Sometimes I make a cross between macaroni cheese and cauliflower cheese, cooking cauli florets with the pasta for the last five minutes.

It's an easy dish and I usually have the ingredients on hand - unless we're running out of milk!

Macaroni Cheese

pasta
1 large onion
2 or 3 rashers of bacon
oil
1/4 cup flour
300ml milk
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 cups grated tasty cheddar
salt to taste
dried breadcrumbs
dried mixed herbs
2 tomatoes, sliced

Cook the required amount of pasta according to the directions on the pack. Use plenty of boiling, salted water.

Finely chop the onion. Remove the rind from the bacon and discard. Chop the bacon.

Place the onion and bacon in a deep saucepan and saute until the bacon is cooked and the onion transparent. If the bacon is lean, you will need to add some oil. Sprinkle in the flour then gently add the milk, stirring to combine it with the flour/fat mix. Add a cup of grated cheese and the cayenne. Simmer until it is bubbling, stirring with a wooden spoon. Set aside.

When the pasta is cooked al dente, drain it and combine with the sauce. Pour into a large shallow ovenproof dish and cover with the sliced tomatoes. Mix the remaining cheese with about half a cup of dried breadcrumbs and a teaspoon of dried mixed herbs. Sprinkle over the tomato. Bake in a preheated 180C oven until the cheese is golden and the mixture bubbling.

The breadcrumbs combine with the cheese to give a tasty crunchy crust.