6 hour Comfort

I will often ask my mom what she wants me to make for dinner and the first thing she will say is "Nothing, if you mess up the kitchen!" Well, no matter what, I am going to say that I won't make any mess and I ask her again. She will say 80% of the time that she wants comfort food. So I go to the Jewel at like 3 pm on Sunday and I probably spend an hour and a half there. I have to ask the help desk three times where they moved the crème fraiche, and then I have to deal with the lady that works at the meat counter after the butcher has gone. So I ask her for a certain pound roast, prime. She says that she can't cut it but I can wait for the butcher to come back tomorrow? I don't understand, does this lady need permission to pick up a knife?! Anyway, I pick up some sushi and Kettle Cheddar Beer chips to eat while I'm cooking, then two pints of Haagen-Dazs Vanilla Swiss Almond for my mom and my sister (and yeah, they will finish them in a night: my family has a soft spot for ice cream, well actually my family has soft love handles for ice cream). I get home and I have to yell up to my sister, who is taking her 5:00 nap to help me get the groceries inside and put away. Even though it wouldn't be hard for me to do it myself, I start to feel really out upon if no one pitches in. I turn on West Wing or FRIENDS and get to work. If everyone was home this is what I would get. Andrew would walk in, complain about how long it was taking and eat all the ingredients. Last year, while cooking Thanksgiving I had made these pan-roasted balsamic pearl onions that I had to heat and individually peel each one. They had taken me about 45 minutes and while they were cooling in the colander, Andrew came in a stated popping them like well, popcorn. Caroline would enter the kitchen and ask if I needed help. I might or might not say yes, but if I did say yes, she would start to help and then take over the entire dinner. I would become the sous-chef in five minutes for the dinner I prepared. My dad would come in and start hounding me about the writing exercises I did for my blog and why I don't write my recipes or changes to recipes down. My mom would come in, get excited about the smells but become suddenly exhausted when she saw the sink and she would say she was going to take a nap. And Gilly, oh Gilly would stumble into the kitchen and yell, "oh, I HATE SOUP! And this is a white soup! Peter, you know I don't eat white foods! Why didn't you make Macaroni and Cheese?" Well, incidentally Gilly's fine palate usually hits the spot. One of my favorite comfort foods to make is Ina Garten's Mac and Cheese with Gruyere and tomatoes! Have fun and stay in school!

-Sea Salt
-Olive oil
-1 pound elbow macaroni or cavatappi (I have used both and to be honest, I liked the elbow better, but I think that was just because I didn’t find a good cavatappi, use the best pasta you know!)
-1 quart milk (I use whole because it makes such a better tasting béchamel sauce, and I mean with this meal, who are you kidding, you’ll start you diet on Monday instead!)
-6 T. unsalted butter (never use salted butter in your recipes unless it calls for it, I took AP Chemistry, and while I got a C one quarter, I know that salt produces chemical reactions in your food when you are not ready for it too, and you want to be able to control the seasoning you put into your food. I know this because once I got reprimanded at the store, which I haven’t talked about, and no one wants to disappoint the boss, Erin, ‘cause she so nice! (God what a brown-noser I am.))
-12 oz Gruyere cheese, grated 4 C. (find the best Gruyere you can find! The more expensive, the better! Emmantalier is good (if that’s how you spell it))
-8 oz extra-sharp Cheddar, grated 2 C. (I like Irish 6 yr cheddar)
-½ t. fresh ground pepper
-½ t. nutmeg (fresh grated is the best but remember only the outer shell of the seed or whatever is nutmeg, the inside is mace (hooray Kendall College for that tip).
-¾ pound fresh tomatoes (Plum are the best choice, juicy and full o’ flava)
-1 ½ C. fresh white bread crumbs, 5 slices crusts removed (get the bad for you, not natural bread because it is the best for this kind of thing, even though my family never eats it and I don’t know what to do with it when I make this, maybe someone could give me a suggestion, always learning!)
-2 T. butter for the crumbs

Preheat to 375 degrees

Drizzle olive oil in large pot boiling water, add pasta, and cook according to directions on the package (cook very al dente because the pasta will cook a little longer in the oven). Drain well.

Meanwhile, heat the milk in a small saucepan (I put the stove on medium and I know its hot when there are lots of little bubbles around the edges/my finger gets hot when I touch it, wow new concept!)

Melt 6 T. butter in large (4 quart) pot and add flour. Cook over low (don’t burn the flour!) for 2 minutes stirring (constantly) with a whisk. While whisking add hot milk and cook for a minute or more, until thickened and smooth (okay, this is crucial, milk must be hot and you must keep stirring, you will feel when it gets thicker, it also gets a deeper color and will look like very melted white chocolate). Take off the heat and add the cheeses, 1 T. salt, pepper, and nutmeg (Tip for grating/thin slicing the cheese is put it in the freezer when you get home until you need it for grating, it makes grating softer cheeses easier and it won’t do anything to the flavor or anything, just don’t let it freeze). Add cooked pasta and stir well, pour into a 3-quart baking dish.
Slice tomatoes ¼ inch thick and arrange on top. Melt remaining 2 T. butter and combine with the bread crumbs you can make by food processing the bread, and sprinkle on top of tomatoes. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until sauce is bubbly and pasta is browned on top.