Homemade macaroni cheese

Ingredients

• 500 g macaroni
• 5 tbsp panko breadcrumbs
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 tbsp salted butter
• 1/2 tsp dried parsley (optional)
• 750 ml full fat milk
• 75 g plain flour
• 75 g salted butter
• 1 tbsp dijon mustard
• 350 g extra mature cheddar cheese
• 250 g red Leicester cheese (half for sauce, half for topping)
• 2-3 tbsp blue stilton (optional)
• Pinch salt and pepper (to taste)

Steps

1. Topping: Put a frying pan on a medium heat and add 1 tbsp of butter. While the butter melts, mince 2 cloves of garlic then add into the pan. Fry the garlic until fragrant then add the breadcrumbs, making sure they are evenly coated in the butter. Toast the breadcrumbs until they become a light golden brown. Remove from the heat, mix in the dried parsley (optional) and set aside.
2. To cook pasta: Fill a large saucepan with water and add plenty of salt (around 1-2% salinity is ideal) and put on a high heat. While waiting for the water to boil, you can prepare the other ingredients. Preheat your oven at this stage (180'C for fan assisted, 190-200'C for conventional).
3. To prepare sauce ingredients: Measure 75g of flour, 75g of butter, and 750ml of milk and set aside (10g of butter and flour per 100ml of milk is a good ratio for a basic bechamel sauce). Grate all of the cheeses, setting aside half of the 250g of red Leicester to use later for the topping.
4. Pasta water should now be boiling, add the pasta, and stir straight away to stop from sticking to the bottom of the saucepan. Reduce the heat to medium and make sure to stir occasionally. Cook the pasta about 2 minutes under the recommended cooking time on the packaging. Once cooked, drain well and set aside.
5. To cook sauce: Put a medium saucepan on a medium heat and add the butter. Once the butter is melted, add the flour to make a roux. Whisk to combine. Keep whisking the roux until it is cooked (appearance changes and it should smell lightly toasted), without allowing it to brown.
6. Take the saucepan off the heat and add the mustard, then begin slowly adding the milk, whisking to combine and remove lumps each time more milk is added. Once all milk is added and the sauce is smooth, put it back on a medium heat. As the sauce heats, keep whisking until it has thickened to the point where the sauce can cling to the back of a spoon.
7. Remove the sauce from the heat, and gradually add all of the extra mature cheddar and half of the red Leicester. Mix these into the sauce until they are melted. Also crumble in the blue stilton at this point if you are using it, making sure there aren't any large chunks. Add as much salt and pepper you would like (I don't add additional salt as I find the cheese and pasta is salty enough)
8. In a large baking dish (the one I use is a 3L baking dish and this fits well in that), combine the cooked pasta with the cheese sauce and spread out evenly into the dish. Sprinkle on the grated red Leicester first, then sprinkle an even layer of the garlic breadcrumbs. You maybe won't need all of the breadcrumbs depending on the shape of the baking dish you are using.
9. Bake the macaroni cheese in the preheated oven for 25-30 mins. Once baked, leave out to rest for 10-15 minutes (no less) before serving.