Hey, y’all. I’m posting today’s Tasty Texas recipe ‘specially for Sacha Coutu.
I’d like to claim this is an old family recipe, but my mom actually got it from a neighbor. What I remember most about Millie? Her son used to spy on me while I was lying by the pool in our backyard. Surely he had better things to do!
Here goes:
- 12 oz. elbow macaroni
- 1 lb. Velveeta (doesn’t matter if you think this is real cheese or not. It’s CRITICAL to this dish!)
- 1 lb. sharp cheddar cheese (reserve 1 cup for topping)
- 1 stick butter (the real stuff – don’t go all margarine on me)
- 3/4 cup onion, chopped
- 1 bell pepper, chopped (use red and you can skip the pimientos, which I skip regardless!)
- 2 T. flour
- 1 can Pet milk (aka evaporated milk)
- Regular milk
- Salt and pepper
- Chopped pimiento (just giving you all the deets, but I recommend you save your money and ditch it)
- Paprika
Cook your mac and drain it. Put it aside while you’re doing the real work of making the sauce.
Chop your Velveeta into chunks while your mac is boiling.
Melt your butter in a Dutch oven (skillet ain’t big enough, people) and try not to think of your arteries. Your stomach will tell them to shut the hell up anyway. Saute onion and bell pepper. Add flour and stir over low heat (we’re not making roux here – no need to brown the flour). Add evaporated milk and enough regular milk to make a medium sauce (better to go a little thinner because this stuff ends up THICK!).
Slowly add all the Velveeta and all but one cup of the cheddar to the sauce. I do it in batches when I’m patient enough. Over low heat, stir until it’s the melty consistency you want. This is going to look like an assload of cheese. And it is. But do NOT make the stingy mistake I made once by not using it all. Your mac will be naked, cold, and lonely without all its cheese blankie.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Now Millie tells us to toss the mac into a long casserole dish and pour the sauce over it. I tend to dump the mac back into the sauce, give it a stir and then pour the whole mess into the baking pan. (A spatula is handy for getting every god-blessed drip of cheese outta that pot.)
Top your gooey mac with the reserved cheddar, pimientos, and paprika. But let’s be honest, I’m mostly in it for the cheese. The rest is just color to make you feel like it’s a healthy dish.
Bake at 350 degrees until cheese bubbles or you just can’t stand it anymore.
Pull that sucker out, and throw elbows to keep your family back!
