Macaroni cheese

One of the staples of our childhood dinners (which we had at lunch time) was ,macaroni cheese. As i remember it, mum made it differently from the dish which is served now. I remember it as being somewhat drier, macaroni with grated cheese and maybe a little milk, then more cheese on top., cooked in a dish in the oven. It didn’t have sauce, it didn’t have gooey  stuff holding it together, but it was very tasty and I particularly loved the crunchy top. y more fussy sister didn’t, which was fine by me. Did we have a vegetable such as peas served with it? Maybe, it seems likely to me that we would have but I can’t remember. We had tomato sauce though, and although I don’t actually like ketchup vey much, I will have it with macaroni cheese.

These days I cook the pasta – of whatever shape, rarely macaroni, make a cheese sauce and mix it in, often with bits of bacon or chorizo or kabanos, sometimes with whole baby tomatoes or sweetcorn or peas mixed in, and served in bowls. Sometimes we have crusty bread with it, sometimes we have garlic bread. Usually i pour the whole lot into a serving dish and set it on the table, rarely do I pour it all into an oven dish and put it into the oven to cook further.

I was amazed when I realised that mac ‘n cheese (I hate ‘n) was an actual dish which was a favourite in restaurants – it seems just a pit together from bits sort of a home dish, but maybe tat’s why it’s a favourite. We only ever had macaroni or spaghetti at home – and not often spaghetti unless it was Heinz spaghetti in a tin – and I confess, I do have a weakness for it! Today I made macaroni cheese, with macaroni not any other pasta, and although I used Cheddar not some authentic fancy Italian cheese, in my own way it was authentic! Everyone loved it too!