Macaroni cheese

Serves 4-6

For the sauce:

40g butter (must be cold)
40g plain flour
1 pint milk (must be cold)
generous pinch of cayenne pepper
bay leaf
nutmeg for grating
100g grated Cheddar
200g grated Red Leicester

500g dried macaroni
Parmesan to serve

1. Boil large pan of well-salted water.

2. Put milk, flour, cayenne pepper, bay leaf and butter in another saucepan, all together. Dairy ingredients must be fridge-cold.

3. Place pan containing sauce ingredients on medium heat, whisking all the time. It absolutely will not lump this way. Don’t be tempted to faff with a roux base.

4. Put your dried macaroni into boiling salted water, return to the boil and leave to cook for a minute to 90 secs less than packet tells you (it will continue to cook under the grill).

5. Stirring the sauce with a whisk all the time, wait for it to almost come to the boil and thicken into a glossy sauce. This will take about as long as the pasta. Remove from heat. Grate in a little nutmeg and add salt and pepper (doing this earlier makes the sauce a bit grey).

6. Turn on the grill to a medium-high heat. Stir 3/4 of both grated cheeses into the sauce until they melt. This must be done off the heat to avoid it becoming stringy.

7. Drain pasta and return to the pan. Pour over 3/4 of the cheesy sauce and stir well to combine. Transfer to oven proof dish (lasagne-style works well). Pour over remaining sauce. Sprinkle remaining grated cheese on top and add a final sprinkling of parmesan.

8. Put under the grill until bubbly and golden brown. Take out and allow to cool / crispen for a couple of minutes before serving with grated parmesan.