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Cheesemonger Mac & Cheese Smack Down

Macaroni & Cheese

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Call us a little biased, but we feel we have some of the best cheesemongers in the business. These guys and gals don’t consider what they do for us as mere jobs. These individuals chose cheese mongering as their vocation because of the enthusiasm they have for all things curds and whey.

Not only do our more-than-qualified mongers demonstrate a superior knowledge of the cheese products we carry, but they exhibit passion for the art of gastronomy. Their creativity and savvy really shines through in the recipes they conceive.

We’re so impressed by our mongers skills, that we’ve begun to host in-house cheesemonger cooking contests for fun and, of course, bragging rights. The first competitive theme was decidedly a no-brainer. What could be better for our cheesemongers to showoff their cooking chops than making a classic comfort food favorite—Macaroni & Cheese!?

Each cheesemonger brought their A-game, but only one concoction was a hands-down winner in a taste test; Ardmore’s Dan Black submitted the winning recipe. It was too good not to share with you—our loyal blog readers!

Dan Black’s “Huntsman Elite” Mac & Cheese

Ingredients:

12 oz. chunk of Colston Bassett Stilton
12 oz. chunk of Cabot Clothbound Cheddar
4 oz. chunk of Piave Vecchio
4 tbsp. VBC basket butter
12 oz. Panko bread crumbs
1 lb. bag of Spiral pasta
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt

Cooking tools needed:

Cheese plane/vegetable peeler
Cheese grater
Large colander
4 quart sauce pan
Casserole dish (preferably 10×10)
Cooking spoon
Aluminum foil

Directions:

  • Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F for 15 minutes.
  • Fill 4 qt sauce pan ¾ of the way with water.
  • Add several teaspoons of salt and 4 ounces of olive oil to the water.
  •  Heat water to a rolling boil.
  • Add pasta and stir frequently.
  • Cook approximately 8-10 minutes or until cooked to al dente.
  • Pour pasta into colander in sink to drain.
  • Put pasta back into 4 qt sauce pan.
  • Shred Cabot Clothbound Cheddar and crumble the Stilton.
  • Mix thoroughly and gently enough to melt the cheeses together.
  • Add mix into pastas.
  • Rub butter onto foil covered pan, pour and spread 12 oz panko crumbs on top.
  • Bake off for approximately 10 minutes.
  • Rub casserole dish with remaining butter.
  • Pour in pasta mixture from the sauce pan.
  • Top the dish with panko crumbs.
  • Cover the casserole dish with aluminum foil.
  • Cook for 20 minutes.
  • Remove foil.
  • Plane or use peeler to shred Piave on top of the dish.
  • Cook for 10-15 more minutes.
  • Let cool and serve.

Enjoy!

Planning to try this recipe? Let us know in the comments. Have your own to-die-for macaroni & cheese recipe? Feel free to share with us!

 

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3 Comments

  • bill l says:
    July 5, 2012 at 4:19 pm

    looks good and i would like to try this but…i don’t get the step ” rub butter onto a foil covered pan” then fill the pan with panko and bake off. essentially toasting the panko in butter? then using the now toasted panko to top the pasta in the casserole dish? i assume the pan and the casserole dish are two different things?

  • CheeseCrazed says:
    July 10, 2012 at 9:06 am

    You are very correct in that assumption, Sir.

  • Deb B says:
    July 21, 2012 at 1:15 pm

    Looks wonderful! BUT … I calculated the cost of the cheese alone to be $45.50! How about offering a “Dan Black Mac Cheese Bundle” with reduced pricing for the cheese bundle?

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