Gooey, Cheesy, Bacony Mac & Cheese

Mac & Cheese which is also known as Macaroni & Cheese. IT’S MY COMFORT FOOD!!

Traditionally, macaroni are used to prepare this dish. However, there are a lot of variation which uses short pasta like Penne, Fusilli and like this recipe, uses Mini Conchiglie (shell pasta).

I prefer using shell pasta or fusilli as I feel that they hold the sauce better. Its really up to your preference on the choice of short pasta.

Mac & Cheese are pasta stirred into cheesy Béchamel Sauce (also known as Mornay Sauce). *do not boil the pasta until fully cook. Ensure the pasta still have some chewy bite to it (about 90% cooked). As you will continue to cook in the sauce and also bake in the oven.

It also depends on the type of cheese used, the sauce can be very stretchy and gooey. According to Tyler Florence’s Inside the Test Kitchen Cookbook, cheese cut into cubes will provide a stretchier sauce as compare to using shredded ones. He recommended using Muenster Cheese for the stretchiest sauce ever, if not Guoda or Jack Cheese.

I used Cheddar cheese and Mozzarella Cheese as this is more commonly found in neighbourhood supermarket and for a creamy and stretchy consistency.

I also did not indicate the quantity of salt require as it very much depend on the type of cheese used. The cheddar I used was very salty as such I did not add any salt. Do taste and season accordingly after adding in the cheese.

Also, to provide a different texture to this dish, breadcrumbs are added and baked in oven to crisp up the crumbs. BEWARE! You will be indulging in both cheesiness and crunchiness in very bite! Oh yeah with smokiness from the bacon too!

I’m a big fan of truffle. So I drizzled some truffle oil to give an extra punch. This is optional.

Enjoy!