Cookbook Review: Melt: The Art of Macaroni and Cheese

Title: Melt: The Art of Macaroni and Cheese

Authors: Stephanie Stiavetti and Garrett McCord

Publication Information: New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2013

Location: West Warwick Public Library, 2nd Floor: TX809 M17 S743 2013

Review

This is a partial book-review, partial experiment in cookery. Two of the Reffies like to try new things in the kitchen - and the other two like it when we bring in samples to share. With winter winding down, but spring nowhere to be found, we thought we'd start off with a new spin on a classic comfort food - mac & cheese!

Melt: The Art of Macaroni and Cheese was published in 2013 and written by Stephanie Stiavetti and Garrett McCord, two West Coast food writers who are interested in elevating ordinary homecooked favorites into haute cuisine - they weren't kidding about the 'Art' of their recipes in the title. Some of the offerings are a little more out there than others (there's even a section for dessert mac and cheese!), but everything looks amazing.

The food photography alone is enough to make your mouth water, though the lists of ingredients might be off-putting to a cook who's more comfortable reaching for the blue box at the supermarket than perusing the cheese shelf. Luckily, even if you haven't worked with all of the ingredients Stiavetti and McCord make use of, their instructions are very easy to follow and the end result promises to be worth stepping outside your comfort zone.

The recipe we decided to replicate was 'Penne with Garrotxa, Serrano Ham, and Sun-Dried Tomatoes'. Right away, we made some substitutions - and did some Googling to find out what exactly 'Garrotxa' is. (It's a Spanish goat cheese. We substituted a half pound each of Cheddar and Gruyère.)  If you can't find serrano ham, the recipe can be made with prosciutto, but we wanted to spice it up and chose to use a quarter pound of spicy capricola.

Any kind of ham would probably work well, but we thought the spiciness of the ham would go well with the sweetness of the tomatoes.

As you can see, the quality of our food photography is a little rough.

Step One

We began by setting a pot of salted water to boil on the stove for the penne (about half a pound, with the intention of serving 2-4 people) and turned our attention to the other ingredients. Because the cheese grater was out of commission (long story), we cubed the cheese to prep it for adding to the sauce. If you have a cheese grater, use it, it took a long time for the cubed cheese to melt.

We also did a little extra prep on the tomatoes and ham that was not recommended by the cookbook - we patted the tomatoes dry with a paper towel before we cut them and cooked out a little bit of the fat by lightly frying the ham in a hot skillet. We did this to make sure the meal wasn't too oily when it was all cooked together.

Step Two

Once the pasta was drained, we started the sauce. This sauce is one of the simplest in the book, it requires only four ingredients - a tablespoon of butter, a quarter cup of milk, and the grated/cubed cheese and a pinch of black pepper. Simply melt the butter in the pan over medium/low heat, add the milk, toss in some pepper, and once the milk is warm, add the cheese in small batches until it's all melted. A tip from the cookbook is to take the sauce off the heat before the last of the cheese has totally melted to prevent it from separating.

Step Three

Drain the cooked pasta, then put it back in the pot with the tomatoes and ham, tossing to combine. Place the pasta, ham, and tomato mixture into a buttered baking dish and pour the cheese sauce over the top. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 15 minutes until the cheese is bubbly and beginning to brown.

Results

Pretty darn tasty! We didn't follow the recipe exactly, but the spiciness of the ham and the slight sharpness of the cheese, plus the sweet tomatoes was a winning combination. It was also pretty darn easy, all things considered, I think it took about 30 minutes altogether, not counting the extra fifteen to bake it all together. That fifteen minutes gives the cook just enough time to take their apron off, put the dishes in the sink, and open a bottle of wine ;-)

This was before the pan went in the oven - there wasn't time to take a ready-to-eat picture.

Can the Kids Do This?

Depends on the kids. Grating the cheese is definitely something they could do, if they remember to be careful around the sharp edges. Be careful they don't eat too much of the cheese before you get the chance to put it in the sauce! If you've got teenagers, this might be a good recipe for them to tackle to develop some skills in the kitchen.