Doesn’t Macaroni Gratin sound nice and fancy? Something you might get at an upscale restaurant. Of course, you and I know that Macaroni Gratin is pretty much Mac ‘n’ Cheese. Well, not that neon yellow sauce- coated macaroni that some pass off as Mac ‘n’ Cheese (yes, of course, we’ve had that kind, too). This recipe for Macaroni Gratin is far more upscale, and you wouldn’t really make it for the kiddies, either, as you definitely need to put effort into making this version.
Not that any part of it is difficult; it’s not, it just takes time to make the Mornay Sauce, so, it might be just the thing when you’re stuck inside with nothing to do. Once the sauce is done, the rest comes together in a just a few minutes, then it’s into the oven. And, the best part is that you can make up the sauce ahead of time and keep it refrigerated.
So, to give credit, this recipe comes from Bouchon, by Thomas Keller, one of his first cookbooks. We happen to love his recipes; often they’re the best of the best.
Macaroni Gratin
Ingredients
- 3 cups Mornay sauce (see note)
- 8 ounces small elbow macaroni
- Kosher salt
- Freshly ground white pepper
- Heavy cream (if needed)
- Freshly grated nutmeg
- 1 1/2 tsp dried thyme (double the amount if using fresh thyme)
- 60 g grated Gruyère cheese (1/2 cup or 2 ounces)
- 2-3 Tbs dried bread crumbs
Mornay sauce
- 57 g unsalted butter (4 Tbs)
- 2/3 cup diced onion
- kosher salt
- 35 g all-purpose flour (1/4 cup)
- 640 g milk (2 2/3 cups)
- 320 g heavy cream (1 1/3 cups)
- 1 bay leaf
- 4 peppercorns
- 4 cloves
- freshly grated nutmeg
- freshly ground white pepper
- 60 g grated Gruyère cheese (1/2 cup)
Instructions
- Make the Mornay Sauce.
- Bring a large kettle of salted water to a boil. Cook macaroni according to directions on the package. Drain thoroughly.
- Preheat oven to 400°F. Move a rack to the upper third of the oven.
- If needed, warm the Mornay sauce in a large saucepan over low heat. If the sauce is too thick, add a bit of heavy cream to thin.
- Remove from heat and stir in macaroni. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.
- Transfer to an 8-cup gratin dish (or other appropriate baking dish) and sprinkle the top with thyme, cheese, and bread crumbs.
- Place in the oven and immediately lower the temperature to 375°F.
- Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the mixture is hot and bubbling around the edges.
- If desired, turn on the broiler to brown the top of the gratin.
Notes
Ingredient discussion:
You’ll note that we specified Gruyère cheese, but, that’s only because we had it on hand. If we’d had Comté or Emmental, we might have used one of those, instead. All three are fairly strong cheeses that melt well. Remember, that this is your Macaroni Gratin, so you get to choose the type of cheese. You’ll also see that we use white pepper, that’s what’s traditionally used for Mornay sauce — no black specks in the sauce — but, if you don’t have it, use black pepper. We really recommend using the nutmeg if you can; it pairs so well with cooked dairy. For the dried breadcrumbs, we, naturally, made our own; we always do and store it in the freezer so we have it on hand. Finally, our dried pasta of choice is Barilla; we mention that simply and only because we think it’s one of the best.
Instructions in detail:
Make Mornay sauce. We aren’t going to cover that here; instead, we’ll refer you to our post for the instructions. Just note that you need to use the quantities listed above to get 3 cups. If you use the amounts in our original post, you’ll get 2 cups of Mornay sauce. Not enough.
Cook pasta. Bring a large kettle of salted water to a full and rolling boil. Add the pasta and cook until tender, or according to the package directions.
Preheat oven to 400°F. Move one of the racks to the upper third of the oven for the best browning or the gratin.
Warm Mornay sauce. We just used the saucepan that we cooked the pasta in. Just poured in the Mornay sauce, put it over low heat and warmed it, stirring occasionally. You don’t need to get it completely hot; the baking will do that, just nice and warm, perhaps a bit under a simmer.
Mix in pasta and season. Once warmed, stir in the pasta and taste. Add more salt, pepper, and nutmeg as needed and taste again. Continue until it’s nicely seasoned, remembering that when it’s completely hot, the flavors will be muted a bit. Transfer the mixture to an 8-cup gratin dish or other appropriate baking dish. We used an 8×12 inch baking dish and that was a perfect size.
Top the gratin. Sprinkle the top of the gratin with thyme, followed by the cheese, and then the bread crumbs.
Bake. Slide into the oven, turn the temperature down to 375°F, and bake until the edges are bubbling, about 15 to 20 minutes. You don’t want to go much longer or much of the sauce will be absorbed by the pasta and your macaroni gratin will be dry.
See, once you have the sauce out of the way, this dish is really easy to make. And, we will say that it turns out very well. It has a nice cheesy flavor, not that salty-fake-cheesy flavor, but a real cheese flavor. After all, it’s made with real cheese. We like the crispy breadcrumbs on top, and the addition of the thyme adds a good amount of flavor, but it doesn’t become overbearing. This is a mac ‘n’ cheese recipe that would be quite appropriate for a special dinner. Four stars, just because the Mornay sauce takes a while, even though we think it’s the best Mornay sauce we’ve had.