Marinated artichoke hearts are all well & good, but let’s take a step back into simplicity for a moment. I am saddened that many people look down on dishes like M&C because they think that there’s more or less nothing to it, kinda like mashed potatoes. You boil some potatoes & mash them up- the end. Well it’s not that simple, and anybody who thinks that mashed potatoes are nothing more than potatoes mashed up probably also thinks that macaroni & cheese comes out of a bright yellow & blue box.
Unfortunately I am at a loss when it comes to giving exact measurements, because I usually measure as I go using the Flintstone-Rubble “pinch of this & dash of that” method.
I start with a medium roux & add milk until I have about three cups in liquid volume. Add 1 tbsp of double strength mustard & enough ground pepper until the roux becomes heavily speckled (yes the final product will have a peppery hint). Once the roux is hot, I add various blends of grated cheese depending on what I happen to have lying around. I always use at least a half pound of extra sharp cheddar, and try to blend in an equal amount of gruyere or romano- something to give an otherwise bland dish a little “twang”.
The trick is to get the proportion of roux to cheese right, otherwise you’ll end up with a mass of elbow noodles all glued together by cheese. The final cheese/roux mixture should be about as thick as egg nog & should have cooked on medium heat (never allow a roux to boil) to insure that all of the flour has incorporated into the milk) for about so that after baking, the M&C will be gooey, and you won’t -need a knife to cut out servings like brownies.
Boil noodles until until firm, them pour into a large baking dish (mine is pyrex 13×9×2 and one box of large elbow noodles fills it to the top). Then pour the roux/cheese mixture over & let it seep into the noodles. Then sprinkle a little cheddar over the top so that the noodles aren’t exposed to the oven elements (damn my stupid electric oven).
Chop up some parsley & sprinkle on top, sparingly. This is mainly for decoration; I can’t detect the flavor of the parsley after baking but the dish looks blah without it.
Bake at 450° for 20 minutes, then change oven setting to broiler and position the dish directly under the elements. Allow to brown to taste (I like mine crispy- almost burnt on top, but would never make it this way for company). This will take only a few minutes… watch it closely! Two minutes too long may make the whole dish inedibly burnt.
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