Comfort food, Italian American style: Lidia's macaroni and cheese

Annalena has met a few celebrity chefs in her day, either at their restaurants, or in other contexts. Almost always, they have been wonderful, humble, helpful folk, absolutely delighted to know that I enjoyed their food. There are a few rotten eggs in the bunch, and if you write her privately, Annalena shall give you names. You will not be surprised. (Incidentally, if you are enjoying a meal in a restuarant, PLEASE ask the server if you can thank the chef, or tell him/her that the food was terrific. These folks work HARD. They hear complaints, almost constantly, and they almost never get a compliment. One of the BEST ways to establish a relationship in a restaurant is to tell the chef what you like. In Annalena's experience, it leads to reservations where none are to be had, dishes off the menu, complimentary drinks and plates of food, and help with cooking. Do the same thing with staff. Tell management when someone has treated you well. You will be rewarded).
Anyway, this is by way of set up to Lidia. That's how you all know her: from her tv shows, for sure. I have met Lidia in her restaurant, and at the farmers market. You know that warm feeling she gives on the programs? it's authentic. It's even bigger in person. The first time I met her, we talked about her cookbooks and the recipes I had cooked. She was SO delighted that I was working with her book. Next time around, she remembered. And she asked if I had made any new ones. Most recently, I met her at the farmers market. It has been about 10 years and 60 pounds since we last chatted. She remembered. We were buying fresh peas, and comparing notes on what we were going to do with them. The lady is magnificent in so many ways.
Lidia has a web blog, on which she publishes recipes. Lately, she has been looking at a phenomenon that has been overstudied, and also under studied: Italian American food, and more precisely, the Italian influence on American food. You all know, for example, that veal parmagiana, and certainly chicken parmagiana, are NOT Italian, don't you? Eggplant parmagiana is, but not the others. If you have a soup called "Tuscan," and it does not have beans in it, it is NOT Tuscan. Perhaps Tuscan influenced, but not Tuscan. If you are served couscous in an Italian restaurant, with anything other than fish... yup, not Italian. And so on and so forth.

And then there are the ways Italian ingredients have been incorporated into things. Anchovies into Ceasar salad (which was apparently invented by a Mexican chef). Mozzarella in just about anything. And of course, pasta.

So you combine Italian pasta with the great American invention, the baked casserole, and you come up with a range of dishes, that run the gamut from ghastly (tuna noodle casserole with crumbled potato chips), to sublime. This one is perhaps the best macaroni and cheese Annalena has ever made, or had. It is, as they say, rich as Donald Trump, so it's not for every day, but once in a while. Go with it. Grazie Lidia. E saporoso. Now, here we go.

You need - ready for this - NINE CUPS of grated cheese. I'd like to say that's not really a lot, but it is. The ratio is: 2 cups of grated fontina, 5 cups of grated extra sharp cheddar, and 2 cups of grated parmesan or pecorino romano. Use the large holes on a 3 sided grater for the first two, and one of those rasp graters for the last, if you have them. And it will be much easier to grate the fontina if you freeze it for fifteen minutes.

Now, take the cheddar, the fontina, and one cup of the third cheese, and put them in a pot, and cover it with a full quart of milk. Nothing less than 2% please. Lidia explained that letting this sit for at least half an hour helps to break down the cheese. I had my doubts, but she was right.

When it's sitting, make the breadcrumbs. That's right, MAKE the bread crumbs. You are going to need about 1.5 cups of them. Lidia suggested running a four inch piece of sturdy bread on that same, three hole grater. Yours truly tried and nearly went even more insane than she is. I cubed it and pulsed in the food processor. You will get larger crumb, and that is just fine for what you're going to do...

Which is to put them in a pan, with two tablespoons of melted butter, and just turn, turn, turn for about five minutes until they are crispy. Put them in a bowl, with the left over cup of cheese.

Okay, so you have a pot with cheese and milk, and a bowl with bread crumbs... now,, PASTA.

You need a shaped pasta. There actually is one called "maccheroni," which is like a larger ziti, and that's what I used (and it is the origin of "macaroni"). you could use fusilli, or ziti, or any of the shaped pastas. You could use spaghetti, etc, but that would not be as good. One pound of it. Get a pot of boiling salted water going, and dump in the pasta. Look at the cooking instructions and deduct five minutes from those. That's how long it's going to cook.

While it's cooking, start heating that pot of milk and cheese. LOW heat. Stir all the while. The cheese will melt down much easier from the soaking period, and it will look SO good. When the pasta is cooked, drain it. Put it back in the pot and add the sauce. Turn it to cover. It may look like there's too much. There isn't.

Butter a baking dish: 9x13 is the right size. Pour in that golden mass, and sprinkle the bread crumbs over the top. Get it in the oven for thirty minutes at 400. It will simmer, it will bubble, and it will smell, frankly, WONDERFUL.

You will be tempted to eat it when it comes out of the oven. Don't. Let it sit so that the pasta can absorb the flavors. If you refrigerate it, it will chill into a solid, thick mass, and you will wonder about it. Trust Annalena. On reheating, it softens, becomes fluffy, and just about irresistable.

This truly makes about 10 portions, but just try to get more than 6-8 out of it. It's positively irresistable, so make sure you have something vegetable like to serve with it. We had it with slow cooked broad beans with garlic and cherry tomatoes, and it was the right thing, followed by a simple salad.

In Annalena's view, this one supersedes all other mac and cheese recipes. Try it. Let me know what you think.