What she’d tell you
The sauce is flour, butter and milk, and it has been made that way for two hundred years because it works. Anyone who tells you it needs cream is selling something.
What you need
Written for 4. Change that in the app and the amounts follow.
Tick things off as you get them ready.
Continue to the method ↓
How it goes
Cook the pasta two minutes short of the packet time in well-salted water. Drain it.
Melt the butter in a saucepan, stir in the flour, and cook it for a full 2 minutes, stirring.
Add the milk a splash at a time at first, whisking each addition smooth before the next. Once it is loose, pour the rest in and whisk until it thickens, about 5 minutes.
Off the heat, stir in most of the cheese, the mustard, salt and pepper.
Fold the pasta through, tip into a dish, scatter the last of the cheese on top and grill for 5 minutes until blistered.
If you haven’t got it
Cheddar
anything that melts: gruyère is wonderful, or whatever ends the week in the fridge
Dijon Mustard
a pinch of nutmeg instead; both jobs are to stop it tasting flat
Keeping it
Three days in the fridge.
Oven at 180°C for 20 minutes with a splash of milk stirred through first.
