This really is the best baked macaroni cheese recipe.
One of the reasons I love it is that it’s one of the easiest recipes to put together – just layer the ingredients and pop it in the oven.
I have used cheddar cheese in this recipe, but feel free to vary the cheese you use to give it a different flavor. I have used several mixes of my favorite cheeses and many work very well. Look in the tips for some great suggestions.
Make it healthier by substituting whole wheat pasta for the white pasta. It makes a real difference to the nutritional value of the recipe.
Best Baked Macaroni Cheese Recipe
Ingredients
- 8 ounces macaroni, uncooked
- 1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese, grated
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 3/4 cups milk
- 2/3 cup soft buttered crumbs, see Notes section below
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°.
- Cook macaroni in salted boiling water until almost soft (al dente). Drain well.
- Grease a large shallow casserole and place a layer of macaroni on the bottom, sprinkle with cheese, butter, flour and seasonings. Continue to layer until all ingredients are used evenly in the layers. (3 layers works well)
- Pour milk over all. Top with buttered bread crumbs.
- Bake at 350° for 40 minutes.
Notes
To make buttered crumbs:
Combine 2/3 cup of bread crumbs with 2 tablespoons of softened butter and mix.Nutrition
Variations:
- As I suggested above, try this recipe using different cheeses. A mix of 3 or 4 of your favorite cheeses would be great. The recipe works best with firmer cheeses like Swiss, cheddar, Monterey Jack or Gruyere because they melt so well and this recipe needs the melting to bring everything together. Cottage cheese would not suite this recipe.
- You don’t have to use the traditional small macaroni in this recipe. Try shaking it up a bit by using other pasta shapes, like penne, corkscrew rigatoni or even wagon wheels for the kids. They’ll love it.
- Using unusual pasta shapes and a mix of cheeses elevates macaroni and cheese to a whole new level. It makes it a dinner you can serve to guests.
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Comments from the older version of our site:
Dinner experiment!
I decided to go with this recepie because it seemed easy enough, and it was. The only thing I would suggest is putting in little or no milk and more cheese. When mine came out the bottom was much too soggy and the top too crunchy, and I couldn’t taste any cheese! I’ll try mixing it up and see how it goes. Thanks for the recipe! X.
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Baked Macaroni & Cheese Casserole
by Kathryn
( Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada)
You can use, if its available to you, a noodle named Stortini Rigati, it’s shaped like an elbow macaroni, however, its larger, softer and simply more delicious.
I boil my desired amount of macaroni in salted water for 12 minutes so that its nice and floppy.
Begin with:
Greased pyrex bowl and “begin layering with ” drained canned diced tomatoes or peeled ripe garden tomatoes.
Layer of cooked macaroni
Next, sauteed, carmelized diced (white) onion
Followed by shredded, mixed cheeses.
Then, your next layer begins with the MACARONI, onions, tomatoes, cheese, dollop of butter, here and there
Followed by same layers until your top layer.
You will finish the casserole’s top layer with macaroni, topped with double the amount of cheese covering all the macaroni. If you want this casserole to have some meat in it, you can add, as a layer, cooked, diced pieces of bacon, ham or lean ground beef, veal, chicken or turkey. Just remember to soak all the grease off of it, with paper towelling, before using. The bacon seems to be the favourite over them all.
Cook, uncovered , at 350 degrees, for 45 minutes. This is really delicious!