I came across this revolutionary way of making cheese sauce on my way back from visiting James in Darwin. Heston Blumenthal’s series was available to view on the inflight entertainment. I managed to fit in the Cheese show. With nothing else to write on, I jotted down the steps on the back of a footy ticket.

Cheese sauce usually begins by making a roux of butter & flour. This sauce changes the rules…there is no butter and no flour. As Heston points out, the flour sucks up the flavour of the cheese…to get that delicious cheesey flavour you need to add far more cheese to get the same effect. Dad hasn’t ever really liked Mac Cheese, it’s too “gloopy” for his taste. However, he loved this version, he even went back for seconds.

It can be eaten as a meal by itself. However, we like to serve it as an accompaniment, particularly to steak.

Now, we all know how to cook pasta, but for this recipe I recommend a different way. Instead of cooking it in litres of water as usual, using ‘just enough’ water will make sure the starch from the pasta is not thrown down the sink. It will help thicken the cheese sauce and it will be deliciously creamy! This recipe calls for 250g of pasta, cook in just 550ml of water.

Ingredients

250 ml dry white wine
300 ml chicken stock
Parmesan rind
80 g cheese, finely grated (the choice is yours! I prefer to use tasty for a mid-week meal or Gruyere for special occasions)
1 tbsp corn flour
2 tbsp cream cheese
4 rashers short-cut bacon, diced
1 small can corn kernels

Method

Pour wine into a saucepan, bring to a simmer and reduce to 30ml. Remove from heat and add the chicken stock and parmesan rind. Rest for 20 minutes.

Coat the finely grated cheese in corn flour. Once the chicken stock mixture has rested, remove the rind and reheat to the point where the cheese will just melt. Remove from the heat to stir through the cream cheese.

Cook the bacon until just cooked. Add the bacon and corn to the cheese sauce.

Cook the pasta in 550ml of water until al dente. Keep a close eye on it so that you don’t burn the pasta (or pan). There will be no need to drain the pasta as there’ll be no water left! Stir the pasta through the sauce. If you like, sprinkle with more cheese and/or breadcrumbs and bake at 180°C for 15 minutes. Let the Mac Cheese rest for 5 minutes before serving.