cheese and a touch of butter.
In North America and Britain it's dried elbow pasta with cheddar cheese and bread crumbs
but in my kitchen it's much, much more.
Please read on.
I'm thinking penne noodles and fresh chunks of lobster settled in a rich lobster bisque topped with grated raw milk aged cheddar and fresh oven dried
bread crumbs baked until the a crust forms.
No Mornay sauce, no besciamella, no roux and no custard?
No problem.
But let's not ignore tradition. Let us respect it and start our adventure at the beginning.
It's 1802 and Thomas Jefferson is pissed because the pasta making machine he ordered
from Italy hasn't arrived and there is no sign of it coming. So the great Mr. Jefferson,
puts down his new revision of the bible and decides to make his own pasta making
machine so that he can finally get a decent bowl of pasta without having to hop
into a boat and row over to Italy.
This is probably the recipe that he used ( as taken from wikipedia ) ...
'Take six pints of water and boil it with a sufficiency of salt, when boiling, stir in one pound
of paste [pasta], let it boil [about eight minutes], then strain the water well off, and put the
paste in a large dish, mixing therewith six ounces of grated parmisan or other good cheese;
then take four ounces of good butter and melt it well in a saucer or small pot, and pour it over the paste while both are still warm. It would be an improvement after all is done, to keep the dish a few minutes in a hot oven, till the butter and cheese have well penetrated the paste.
It may be rendered still more delicate by boiling the pasta in milk instead of water and put a little gravy of meat, or any other meat sauce thereon.'
Sounds pretty good when you consider the recipe is about 205 years old. It would be a shame and a disservice to Mr. Jefferson, after all his hard work to build his own pasta maker, to
not try the recipe. Now lets see what today's popular recipe looks like.
To prepare the dish, one boils the pasta, and then adds milk, butter and the cheese powder.
Sounds nice and easy.
What we do, to be fair, is to pit my version against the Italian version and the Kraft version
and let the people decide. I myself have never tried the Italian version. But honestly you
know that a plate of pasta with butter and loads of grated Parmesan cheese is going to be
killer.
The same goes for the British North American version which is the same as the Italian one except the cheese is cheddar instead of parma. Why add lobster to an already amazing dish? Why not!
The dishes are good, but by adding lobster it becomes a show stopper.
OK!
It's the end of the week I'm hoping I won't have to eat mac 'n' cheese of any kind for a few
months. I have already polished off about three pounds of the stuff and I'm sick of it.
But that isn't to say that the dishes weren't tasty.
They were all very yummy, except the Kraft version.
I, like most I'm sure, have positive memories about Kraft Macaroni and Cheese.
But ignorance is bliss and now that I've compared Kraft with top quality versions of the traditional recipe I can't believe people actually eat this shit.
Well to each his own.
But I strongly urge all of you to try the simple classic versions of macaroni and cheese
and implore you to feed it to your kids. So that one day when your kid is blogging on
the memories of mac 'n' cheese that they'll be talking about the classic versions
that they were fed not the boxed powder version.
And the winner is .... Lobster baby! Yeah!!
This was a great week. I had an awesome time cooking all of this great food and seeing
how our young Canadian roots connect to Britain and Italy. Cool.
Til next time, Ciao.
Lobster Mac 'n' Cheese
Jason Barato
* note when making this bisque for lobster mac 'n' cheese, slightly under salt it to
compensate for the saltiness of the cheddar
For the Seafood Bisque
4 l seafood stock
3 Nova Scotia lobsters
3 tb oil
4 fresh bay leaves
1/2 l 35%
1/2 cup brandy
2 spanish onions, diced
6 cloves garlic
1 cup white wine
salt
-cook lobster in boiling stock for 4 min, remove lobster let cool then remove all meat and put shells back in stock and puree all ingredients in a blender till smooth, strain and set aside
-heat a separate pot add oil and onion, garlic, bay and cook until golden and translucent add some salt
-add wine, lobster broth, cream, and reduce by half
- season with brandy and salt
- bring back to a boil and puree with a pump blender and strain into a container
-slice the tail meat and toss all the lobster meat back into the bisque and let age over night
Toasted Bread Crumbs
-keep all of your bread ends and toss into the oven on a baking sheet and let dry without heat overnight and pulse until fine using a food processor
to combine
2l water
1 1/2 tbsp salt
2 l lobster bisque
500 g penne rigate
1/2 cup 2 year old cheddar + 1/2 cup grated 2 year old orange cheddar
3 tbsp toasted bread crumbs
-preheat oven to 475F
-boil pasta for 11 minutes
-heat bisque on medium heat
-when pasta is al dente, strain add to sauce mix in cheeses off heat then ladle onto a large
platter top with bread crumbs and bake for 5 minutes
-serve and enjoy
Classic Italian Mac'n'Cheese
Rigatoncini with Parmesan
Jason Barato
Sept 2007
2l water
1 1/2 tbsp salt
125g unsalted butter
4oz of pasta water
500 g of rigatoncini
1/2 + 1/2 cup grated parmesan
3 tbsp toasted bread crumbs
-combine water and salt bring to a boil add pasta and cook for 11 min
-aside in a large pot combine 125 g unsalted butter with 4 oz pasta water do not heat
-after 11 minutes strain pasta and toss in butter then add 1/2 cup of grated parmesan
cheese incorporate
-plate and top with 1/2 cup grated parmesan and 3 tbsp toasted breadcrumbs
-serve and enjoy
Classic North American/British Mac 'n' Cheese
250g elbow macaroni
2l water
1 1/2 tbsp salt
125g unsalted butter
2oz of pasta water
500 g of garganelli
1/4 + 1/4 cup grated 2 year old orange cheddar
1/4 + 1/4 cup grated 2 year old yellow cheddar
3 tbsp toasted bread crumbs
-preheat oven to 475F
-combine water and salt bring to a boil add pasta and cook for 11 min
-aside in a large pot combine 125 g unsalted butter with pasta water do not heat
-after 11 minutes strain pasta and toss in butter then add 1/4 cup of both cheddars
incorporate
-plate and top with 1/4 + 1/4 cup of both cheddars and toasted breadcrumbs and bake
for 5 min at 475F
-serve and enjoy
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