When I was a kid, my mom would often serve me my best food: Velveeta Spaghetti. Cooked pasta mixed with 1 can of Campbell’s Tomato Soup for sauce and enough Velveeta Cheese to make the creamiest, cheesiest, richest mac’n cheese you could dream of. I’d eat at least two plates of it, then return before bed to sneak a few more bites from the pot that had been left to cool on the counter…
Back to the future. As the ghost writer on the À la bonne franquette cookbook, I reached out to 80 Quebec chefs asking for their favourite recipe. Many jumped at the opportunity to present their mother’s specialty as a tribute, including Amélie Dumas, executive chef at Auberge du Lac Taureau.
Her Mac’n Cheese echoed my cherished childhood dish. It has a few more ingredients including beef but features the same tomato soup sauce with cheese melt.
Of course, as a foodie mom, I am now way too sophisticated to make such a recipe. In our house, we eat Portuguese-style roast chicken, wasabi salmon tail, onion confit & lamb tagine. Forget nostalgia, not a chance that I was ever going to like this. The lady doth protest too much, you say?
So here is the “Mac’n Cheese” from Amélie’s mom. A taste of childhood, as good as ever and so family-friendly we all had seconds. Just don’t quote me, okay?
Excerpted from:
This is almost like my mom’s recipe, but hers was simpler. No cheddar cheese added except when we wanted it “gratiné” and she did not put ground beef in it either most of the time. She would add sauteed mushrooms sometimes. Simple recipe that is still up to this date my nephews and brothers favorite mac & cheese recipe.
My mum didn’t use beef but she put slices of Kraft Singles on top and broiled until not golden, no, deep brown! And that was the best part to me.