Recipe: Ultimate mac and cheese

Mac and cheese is one of my all-time favourite comfort dishes. It's so hard to get right but when it's cook to perfectly, it tastes heavenly. Just not the most photogenic of food dishes! So when I was kindly sent some Norwegian Jarlsberg cheese I decided to attempt it for the first time. I used a Jamie Oliver recipe as a base. Jarlsberg is a great cheese to use because it still keeps it's intense nutty flavour when it's melted.

Feeds 4

Ingredients:
20g butter
1.5 heaped tbsp plain flour
4 tsp of lazy garlic
3 bay leaves
1 pint of semi-skimmed milk
300g macaroni pasta
1 pack of cherry tomatoes
4 rashers of bacon
Splash of Worcester sauce
150g grated Jarlsberg cheese*
100g grated parmesan cheese
1 big handful of breadcrumbs
Olive oil

Method:

1. Grill the bacon under the grill until it is nice and crispy. Once cooked, put aside to cool down.

2. While the bacon is cooking, melt the butter in a large saucepan over a low heat, add the flour then turn the heat up to medium. Keep staring until you get a paste like mixture.

3. Add the garlic and keep stirring until the garlic is nice and golden. Add the bay leaves.

4. Slowly add the milk and keep stirring until the sauce is lovely and smooth. Bring the mixture to a boil and then leave it to simmer. Stir occasionally so it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan. Preheat the oven to around 200 degrees.

5. Boil some water and add the pasta. Cook to the packet instructions.

6. Meanwhile roughly chop the tomatoes and bacon. Season them with salt and pepper to your taste.

7. Once the pasts is cooked, drain it and add it to the sauce. Then add the grated cheeses, tomatoes, bacon and Worcester sauce.

8. Make sure the sauce isn't too thick as it will thicken in the oven. Add some water if you need too.

9. Transfer the mixture into a oven-proof casserole pan before popping in the oven for around 30 minutes until the mixture is bubbly and golden brown.

10. Whilst it cooked, heat some olive oil in a frying pan over a medium heat before popping in the breadcrumbs. Stir and toss the breadcrumbs around until they're crispy but not too burnt!

11. Sprinkle some breadcrumbs over the finished mac and cheese for a lovely cranky topping before tucking in. Enjoy!

As always, please do let me me know if you give this a whirl and drop me a tweet!