Macaroni

If there is a comfort food for teens, it’s mac and cheese. Spenser and Shelbi absolutely love it! These little mac-and-cheese cups are both fun to make and great to eat. Adding panko bread crumbs creates a nice crunch that will satisfy adults as well.

Two types of Cheddar are used in this recipe. If you like, use just one type, or mix Cheddar with another melting cheese, such as pepper Jack, Muenster, Swiss, or mozzarella.

Of all the dishes in this book, this was probably the favorite when we were testing recipes. Everyone we tried it on loved it. Although it takes a little time to caramelize the onions, it’s easy (they pretty much just sit in the pan and cook themselves), and you will not believe how sweet and delicious they end up.

Cowboy nicknames for their cattle-drive cooks—biscuit shooter, dough puncher, and dough belly—suggest how important sourdough biscuits were to hungry, range-riding wranglers. No self-respecting chuck wagon cook traveled without a dough keg for his prized sourdough starter, the fermented yeast needed to make sourdough biscuits. I covered this macaroni and cheese with a generous blanket of buttered sourdough breadcrumbs in honor of chuck wagon cooks of the past. The rest has little to do with old-time chuck wagon cooking, but I don’t know a modern cowboy or anyone else who would turn down a bubbling pan of freshly baked mac and cheese.

Miso is a common ingredient in vegan versions of cheesey recipes, because it helps make up for the sharp complexity that’s missing without any dairy products. I love cheese too much to ever leave it out, so why choose? Combining the two together, and adding mushrooms, makes for a powerfully flavored dish that packs a punch of umami. This is a light dinner for one that you can bulk up with a salad.

Like many recipes of humble country origins, there is no carved-in-stone recipe for minestrone, the iconic Italian vegetable soup. Mamas from both sides of the Atlantic have used fresh seasonal vegetables with a bit of hambone or cheese rind to prepare soulful, satisfying soups. We’ve long known that this combination tastes good. Now we have a name for why it does: umami. The Japanese term umami is now familiar to culinary professionals, chefs, and informed foodies, yet Asian cooks have appreciated the taste for centuries. It is the fifth taste after sour, salty, bitter, and sweet. Scientifically, umami is the distinctive flavor of amino acids, which are the building blocks of protein. Think about classic Caesar salad dressing, a combination of egg protein and salted anchovies. Or old-fashioned greens simmered with ham. Or this soup, in which the rind of the Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese complements the vegetables in the tomato broth.

Many Northern macaroni-and-cheese recipes use a béchamel sauce to coat tender elbow noodles, but the only time most Southerners put flour in a skillet is to make gravy—certainly not for a white sauce for macaroni. Our recipes are often simple combinations of pasta, eggs, butter, milk, and cheese. My Aunt Lee often prepares this dish. When I asked her about her recipe, she replied, “I just mix it all up in the dish until it looks right.” I had to coax a little more instruction out of her to share it with you here.

You’re in college now so it’s time to break away from boxed mac ’n’ cheese and try the real thing. It’s not hard to make and once you realize how creamy and cheesy the homemade version tastes, you’ll never go back to that boxed stuff. We added ham to this dish, but you could make it without the ham or with cooked chicken or broccoli. Hey, don’t knock it ‘til you’ve tried it. Who doesn’t love cheesy broccoli?

Although it takes longer to make, there is no comparison between real macaroni and cheese and the stuff that comes out of the box with a packet of powdered cheese. (What is that stuff anyway?) I have made it with Cheddar, colby, Jack, and the Mexican cheese mixture with chiles, and they were all great. I even once made it with cream cheese, but I wouldn’t recommend that.

This is one of my favorite after-school snacks. It tastes great and it makes a lot, so I can eat it for a few days in a row. Although it tastes better cold, I am usually too impatient (and hungry) to wait for it to chill, so I eat it warm the first day and then cold the rest of the time.

Ready to think outside the box? While it may take a touch more time than its boxed counterpart, this creamy casserole is exponentially better than anything off the grocery shelves. The light crunch of the panko bread crumbs set against the thick, gooey underbelly of cheese-laden pasta makes for a most decadent taste and texture experience. Feel free to experiment, trading out some of the Cheddar for Gruyère or a smoked Gouda, if you so desire.

This is a mac-and-cheese you can actually feel good about serving. Substitute any vegetables you prefer to boost the nutrition of this meal far beyond any boxed version bought at the store. Traditionally, American-style macaroni and cheese is made primarily with Cheddar cheese, but personally I’m a fan of using mozzarella and Monterey Jack. Of course, you can mix and match any combination of cheeses in this meal. Nondairy cheeses perform about as well as real cheeses in Glorious One-Pot Meals, although I usually look for those listing casein as an ingredient for that cheesy gooeyness that’s more like the real stuff. Casein might be a problem for vegans and those with mild dairy allergies, so keep this in mind. You can use much less cheese than I recommend and the dish will still turn out pretty cheesy. If you find it is too rich, try using harder, lower-fat cheeses such as Swiss, provolone, or Parmesan. Enjoy experimenting with your favorite cheeses. Some noodles and cheese may form a crusty layer along the bottom and lower sides of the pot. While my husband enjoys crunching these tasty strips, stirring well to coat the noodles with water when building the pot and paying careful attention to when the aroma first escapes the oven will help you avoid this.

While my mother wouldn’t be caught dead serving jarred marinara sauce, I’ve found quality organic brands speed up prep time and taste as good as homemade. Sometimes I’ll doctor the sauce with fresh tomatoes, zucchini, or green peppers from the garden. Or I’ll add roasted green chiles (available frozen, canned, or fresh in the fall) or red pepper flakes for a flavor boost. If using a nondairy cheese, be aware that brands containing casein retain more of the creaminess associated with real cheese than those without. While the presence of casein shouldn’t affect most lactose-intolerant people, it is an animal product and could cause those allergic to dairy to have a reaction. Instead of using prepared marinara sauce, you could stir the herbs directly into a can of crushed tomatoes and pour this mixture over the layers of eggplant.

Macaroni salad is all over the South. This is our refreshing Italian-inspired take on the usual mayonnaise-based kind. You can toss in leftover grilled chicken for a main-course salad. Kids tend to love macaroni, so we leave out the herbs when we know we’re feeding someone who isn’t a fan of “green bits.” Try it next time you serve up Chicken Nuggets with Honey-Lemon Dipping Sauce (page 159) or our Saucy Tilapia with Tomatoes and Capers (page 56).

Bobby loves his goulash. It’s still the dish he begs Mama to make for him, even though he can have this easier, leaner version ready for himself when he gets home whenever he likes. Mama often serves her goulash the next day to let the flavors marry; cooking it in a crockpot in a single day achieves the same delicious effect.