[PUGACHEV]

I learned how to make M&C from my mother too. Then, I improved it. Start with a bechamel sauce, lots of flour and butter. Next, add equal parts of mozzarella, sharp cheddar, and provolone. Add salt, and Coleman's dry mustard. The sauce should taste too salty before it is baked. Finally, add a pinch of nutmeg.

Cook various pasta shapes, including fusilli, rigatoni, shells and chariot wheels. Add chopped onions, green bell peppers, canned mushrooms, and black olives (some chopped, some whole). Put the sauce in a Dutch oven and add the vegetables and pasta to the proportion you like. Typically, I wind up with two pots full. Cook in the oven covered at 375 degrees for an hour and a half, or until the peppers turn a light green and the sauce thickens. Finally, remove the lids and add French onions on top and cook uncovered for another 15 minutes. The left-overs freeze beautifully.

[Bon of Babble]

That recipe sounds wonderful - my relatives in the mid-west also add mustard and a pinch of nutmeg to mac ‘n cheese. Love the mixture of pasta types, I’m going to have to try that.

Have a family member that hates olives and bell peppers so I’d probably leave those off.

I think the white sauce my mother made is a béchamel sauce, and she used a three-cheese mixture, not sure which cheeses she used - I suspect it was whatever was in the house at the time.

Gotta have the crunchy top too!