Mac and Cheese

Mac and cheese is traditionally made using a combination of Cheddar and American Cheese, which, while I’m on that topic, I’d like to just put this out there, is not actually cheese.

I’m sure you already figured those little individually wrapped squares from the pre-sliced cold cut section of the supermarket were not lovingly stacked on shelves in a mountain cave and aged for 60 days. Nor was the big, glossy brick of Land O Something-or-other you see behind the deli counter. No no. The cheese labeled “American” is a cheese by-product. Like in the same way that particle board is a wood by-product.

According to the American Cheese Society, American Cheese is a “processed cheese”, which is defined as a cheese by-product made from a combination of natural cheese and added ingredients, such as stabilizers, emulsifiers, and flavor enhancers that are used to create a consistent and shelf-stable product aimed at mass market consumption.

Another interesting fact about cheese is that in the same way that all dogs share the same DNA, from Chihuahua to St. Bernard, all cheese is made from the same three ingredients: starter culture, rennet and milk. The only difference is the way those three ingredients are combined and aged. So Gorgonzola, Camembert, Romano, Cheddar, Gruyere, St. Marcellin, all cheese comes from exactly the same ingredients.

The only exception is processed cheese.

So why mess up such a perfect food with emulsifiers and other stuff your grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food (as Pollan would put it)? For many years, when the US had few to no artisan cheese producers, it may have made some sense to do this in order to facilitate national distribution. But that’s just not the case anymore. You can’t swing a dead cat without hitting an artisan cheese outfit and that’s a wonderful thing!

I really shouldn’t make it sound like artisan cheese producers are everywhere. Though there are pockets of production and grateful consumption of fantastically complex and delicious European-style cheeses nationwide, these producers are up against huge manufacturers and their millions in marketing campaigns. In order to insure the survival of artisanal producers, and our subsequent vast selection of such specialties, there needs to be a major paradigm shift in the way we as consumers shop, namely away from the mass-produced cheese found in every supermarket.

My point there, with the dead cat comment, is that artisan cheeses are around if you look for them. And you should look for them if you like quality cheese and would like to continue to see quality cheese.

It’s just a shame it took us so long and now “American Cheese” is defined as the SPAM of cheeses, and not something flowery like, “One of many regional varieties of complex cheeses produced in the United States.”

So that’s why I don’t use American Cheese in my mac and cheese.

Although, I will admit, I used to love American Cheese on white bread with mayo as a kid, but then I also used to like chewing on wax.

This recipe uses sharp Vermont Cheddar, a blue cheese from Iowa and Pecorino Romano from Italy. The pungent blue cheese and tangy Romano cut right through the sharp cheddar and add layers of flavor. Mustard emulsifies and cumin adds a little bite.

Yankee Cook’s Mac and Cheese – serves 2-4

Half a pound of short pasta, cooked
3 T butter
2 T flour
1 C milk
1 C, +1/2 C grated Cheddar
1/4 C Pecorino Romano
2 T blue cheese, crumbled (but not the “crumbles”)
1/4 t ground mustard
a few dashes of ground cumin
salt to taste

Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Once it foams, whisk in flour and blend over medium heat for 1-2 minutes. Pour in milk and whisk until smooth. Allow the roux to thicken. Stir in the cheeses, cumin, mustard and remove from heat. Stir until melted and smooth. Season to taste.

In a small to medium casserole, combine the pasta with the cheese sauce. Top with the additional cheddar.

Bake, uncovered for 20 minutes or until bubbly.

Blue Cheese and Salami Baked Penne

I felt like having a hearty comfort-food type lunch today, and so I decided to make baked penne with salami in the sauce and pecorino romano and blue cheese (for a nice melty effect) on top.

The result was a satisfying combination of flavors. The sweetness of the tomato sauce combined with the occasional peppery cube of salami worked nicely with the blue cheese from Jasper Hill Farm, an artisanal cheese maker in Vermont. I’d tried Constant Bliss, their mold-ripened cheese last summer and I was impressed, so I picked up their Bayley Hazen Blue yesterday at the natural market. The flavor is unlike any blue cheese I’ve tasted. It’s mellow and strong at the same time, without being overly salty. Perfect for this dish.

I’d gotten the salami at the a new conventional grocery store in town. My husband and I decided to check it out, despite having a Pollan-esque disdain for conventional supermarkets. I was checking out their cheese selection and ended up reading the labels of a couple of their salami for nitrates. I love salami, but it’s very difficult to find good salami, especially nitrate-free salami. It had been a while since I’d had any salami though and I was tempted, since this was made without nitrates. The flavor turned out to be a little too sweet and the texture too rubbery on it’s own though, which was why I thought maybe I’d throw it in with the sauce. Melt some of the fats and into the sauce and cut the sweetness with the tomatoes’ acidity. I like to use a gratin dish because it’s shallow and results in more cheese per bite.

Blue Cheese and Salami Baked Penne – serves 4

1 T olive oil
1 clove of garlic, pressed
2 C tomato, diced
1/4 C scallion, chopped
2 T tomato paste
1/4 C chicken or vegetable stock
1/2 C diced salami
1/4 C pecorino romano
1/4 C blue cheese, crumbled (I prefer to crumble it myself rather than buy it crumbled, which I find dry)
2 C dried penne, ziti or your favorite short pasta

Pre-heat oven to 350. Cook pasta as directed, drain, rinse or toss with olive oil, if desired.

Heat olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic and scallions and cook one minute. Do not let it brown. Stir in tomato paste. Add stock, tomatoes and salami. Allow to simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.

Pour pasta into a shallow baking dish, pour sauce over pasta, turning with a large spoon or spatula to coat the pasta. Top evenly with cheese and bake for 15 minutes.