Cheesy Baked Macaroni
This cheesy baked macaroni is the ultimate comfort food – layered with savory meat sauce, creamy white sauce, and a golden, bubbly cheese topping. Perfect for family dinners, potlucks, or just because you’re craving something warm and satisfying.
Ingredients
- 800 grams macaroni noodles
- 1 cup coarsely grated cheese
For the meat sauce:
- 1 kilo ground pork or beef (or a mix of both)
- ½ pound bacon, cut into small pieces
- 2 big onion, diced
- 1 head garlic, minced
- 2 cans button mushroom, diced or sliced thinly
- 1,000 grams tomato sauce
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 3 teaspoons paprika
- 2 teaspoons ground pepper
- ¼ cup soysauce
- Salt
- Cooking oil for sautéing
For the white sauce:
- 1 cup butter
- 1 cup flour
- 2 cans evaporated milk
- 2 cans cream of mushroom
- 1 can or tetra pack all-purpose cream
- 2 teaspoons white pepper
- Salt
Instructions
For the pasta:
- Cook the macaroni noodles according to package instruction. Set it aside.
For the meat sauce:
Step 1
- In a large skillet or pot, add the ground meat, spread it out to cover the surface, and leave it undisturbed until it browns. After 3-4 minutes, you can check the edges if it’s starting to brown. Once that is happening you can then add and stir in the bacon.
Step 2
- Let the ground meat and bacon cook. It will start to sweat the fats, unless your meat is very lean, in that case you may add a little cooking oil before you proceed to sauteing the onion and garlic. Or you can also scoop some of the fats if it’s too much to your liking. (I prefer mine with the fats on, though.)
Step 3
- Add the mushroom along with the seasonings – dried Italian seasoning, paprika, soysauce, and pepper. After about a minute, add the tomato sauce and let it gently simmer, occasionally stirring, for 20-30 minutes. Taste to see if it needs salt, otherwise it’s basically done. Set aside.
For the white sauce:
Step 1
- Add the butter in a large skillet or a suate pan. Then slowly add the flour while briskly stirring right before the entire butter melted. You have to keep on stirring to keep it from burning and to make sure there are no lumps in there. Continue stirring and let it cook for say for about 3-4 minutes.
Step 2
- Slowly add the milk while still briskly stirring. Once the butter and flour mixture has been well incorporated with the milk, you can then add the cream of mushroom. Season it with salt and pepper, give it another good stir and then let it simmer for 10 minutes or more.
Step 3
- Give it another taste – it doesn’t have to be salty but it should be pretty noticeable. I prefer mine with a lot of white pepper, too. Once you’re happy with the seasoning, set the fire on low, add the all-purpose cream and stir until near boil. Set aside.
To assemble and bake:
Step 1
- Mix the meat sauce and half of the white sauce with the macaroni noodles. Once they’re well incorporated, scoop the pasta into baking dishes. I like to keep mine no thicker than 2 inches. Top them with the remaining white sauce and cover them with the grated cheese.
Step 2
- Bake it for about 20-30 minutes in an oven or oven toaster at 250 degrees. Or until the cheese on top browns equally, it’s really up to you how brown you’d want it to be.
Step 4
- Let it rest for about 10 minutes and then it’s ready to serve.
