im gonna livetweet making mac and cheese so mute me now

too late! first you get about 2 cups of cheese grated and ready. I'm using gruyere and aged white cheddar and might throw some parmesan rinds in but it's up to you. smoked gouda and mozzarella are great too. 2c is good to start bc you can add more as you go

then mince a couple small bulbs? cloves? idk of shallots kind of finely. this is for the roux, which will become bechamel after adding cream, which will become mornay after adding cheese. start melting about 4tsp of butter in a skillet with a solid bottom

while the butter melts over medium-low, chop up maybe a fistful of flat leaf parsley to saute with the shallots. I'll use maybe half of this and this use the rest later

when the butter is hot and foaming, throw in the shallots and parsley and cook for a couple minutes, but don't let it brown. meanwhile, get 1/4c of flour ready

on low heat, whisk in the flour until it's totally mixed with the butter and cook for a minute or two, and then start to SLOWLY. SLLLOWWWLLLYYY whisk in 2c of heavy cream. it's going to look chunky and gross and you're going to think you ruined it every time but just keep going

soon you'll have a beautiful bechamel like this. the chopped parsley makes it kind of greenish but you could also just put the whole leaves in and take out later. add a bay leaf and some pepper and let it cook for 10 mins stirring very often

because we're adding a lot of cheese, you want it on the thinner side so after I used the 2c of cream I switched to milk and thinned it out a little. just eye ball it

now you can start melting in the cheese gradually. its way thicker now. meanwhile start boiling a pot of chicken stock, enough to cover a box of pasta. I think cavatappi is best bc the spirals and ridges are all surface area for the sauce to cling to

fuck it adding a parmesan rind to the stock

the mornay sauce is a little thick so I'm going to add some of the stock after the pasta has cooked in it. the water will dilute it a little, but add the flavor of the stock, and the starch from the pasta to help bind everything together

when the pasta is very al dente, take it off the heat and whisk in enough pasta stock to thin it to the right consistency (also took the rind and bay leaf out). then strain the pasta and mix it all together :) top with parmesan, parsley, salt, pepper, whatever

god damn.....god damn that is a Mac and cheese. you put that next to a BBQ pork tenderloin and you will see God.