Macaroni & Cheese: 52 Recipes from Simple to Sublime [Paperback]

Joan Schwartz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 9, 2001

Simple and perfect, macaroni and cheese is the ultimate comfort food, a classic dish that's reassuring and familiar, yet, with the addition of a bit of truffle oil or salsa, it kicks into high gear with an unexpected burst of flavor. Now, for the first time in one collection, dozens of well-known chefs, including Bobby Flay, Rocco DiSpirito, Charlie Palmer, David Burke, Matthew Kenney, Katy Sparks, and Rick Bayless, share favorite recipes, from both their childhood memories and their award-winning restaurants. Here are recipes for Macaroni with Wisconsin Asi-ago, Baked Four-Cheese Pasta, Penne with Roquefort, Macaroni and Cheese Croquettes, Green Chile Mac and Cheese, and Chunks of Lobster Swimming in Cheesy Macaroni. While the basic concept of pasta and cheese remains the same, each recipe has its own taste and personality, blending and balancing flavor, texture, and presentation for a bold Mac and Cheese experience.

Simple enough for the novice cook yet sophisticated enough to impress the experienced home chef, Macaroni and Cheese is a fun-filled cookbook that will be enjoyed for years to come.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Macaroni and cheese is the ultimate, all-American comfort food. Most Americans, especially children, are familiar with the version that comes out of the blue cardboard box, but acclaimed cookbook author Joan Schwartz has something to say about that in her collection Macaroni & Cheese. Schwartz has compiled over 50 original and inventive recipes from many well-known chefs and restaurants. Most of the recipes start off with a basic béchamel sauce (milk whisked into a roux) and add various domestic and foreign cheeses to the hot mixture, but some find room for more exotic ingredients, like truffles, duck prosciutto, oysters, sausage, and codfish. In addition, there's a glossary of almost 40 milk and goat cheese varieties that appear within the recipes. After sampling some of the more unusual recipes with such fascinating and complementary flavors, it will be time to put your standard assumptions about mac and cheese to rest, and put the blue box at the back of the pantry shelf. --Teresa Simanton

From Library Journal

What a great idea a whole cookbook devoted to one of everybody's favorite comfort foods. Schwartz, coauthor of chef Bobby Flay's books, among others, collected recipes from well-known chefs around the country and added a half-dozen or so of her own. There are lots of versions of "classic" macaroni and cheese, along with recipes for what she calls "International Mac" such as Pastitsio and Rigatoni al Forno and "Mac and Cheese Today" Fontina and White Truffle Macaroni, Mascarpone and Noodle Pudding, and more. For most collections.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Villard; 1 edition (October 9, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375757007
• ISBN-13: 978-0375757006
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 7.7 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #373,010 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #62 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Cooking by Ingredient > Pasta

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mac & Cheese!?!? Not in the 'Blue Box' Anymore!!, April 25, 2003

By 

Daniel F. Moore (Yarmouth, Maine USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Macaroni & Cheese: 52 Recipes from Simple to Sublime (Paperback)

Is there any food dish that is more American than Macaroni and Cheese? Many of us, myself included, grew up with the 'blue box' and as our tastes developed, so did our disdain for this dish. I tended to equate 'Mac & Cheese' with that meat product that comes in the blue can.

But Joan Schwartz has exploded the low-brow image of America's comfort food. This book is incredible! There are so many varieties of this dish from the 'classic' dishes to international flavors to what Ms. Schwartz calls 'Mac and Cheese Today'. And don't think that the cheese is that orange stuff. Swiss, Fontina, Mascarpone, Feta and Mozzarella are just a few of the varieties that you will use in your recipes. And just when you thought that the cheeses were a stretch, recipes with lobster, prosciutto, artichoke hearts, portabello and crimini mushrooms and chiles and chipotle peppers to mention a few, will delight your tastes.

I'll admit that I bought this book with a great deal of skepticism. A few bites of the 'Chunks of Lobster Swimming in Cheesy Macaroni' dispelled my reservations. Other favorites include 'Farfalle with Fontina, Tasso Ham and Baby Spinach' and Mac and Smoked Cheddar with Ham and Chipotles'. Imagine the look on guests' faces when you announce that you are serving them Mac and Cheese and their surprise when you serve a dish approaching haute cuisine.

Let's admit it...we liked the 'blue box' growing up and most of us are ashamed to reveal our love of this American staple. Now we can proudly bring this long demeaned dish back to the table and rekindle our fondness for it. Buy the book....it's a keeper!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars YUMMY AND UNIQUE!, December 14, 2001

By 

Sandra D. Peters "Seagull Books" (Prince Edward Island, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Macaroni & Cheese: 52 Recipes from Simple to Sublime (Paperback)

Macaroni and cheese - kids like it, it's affordable, quick, simple to prepare and easy to digest. However, this is not your typical macaroni and cheese in a famous brand name box that you can prepare in less time than it takes to iron you socks! I liked this book particularly because it had so many variations and quite honestly, some I had never thought of and others that did not sound too appealing on the surface but turned out to be down-right delicious! There is a version found here with lobster that will pass for a gourmet meal! The choices are endless and the cost of preparing these recipes can be as extravagant or as modest as the ingredients you choose to add. If you are one who does not care for that "little blue box," do not give up on the macaroni and cheese idea yet, as least not until you have tried some of the recipes found in Schwartz's book. You can tickle your taste buds with a different delight each week of the year!

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cookbook of the Year!, November 15, 2001

By 

Carl Lake - See all my reviews

This review is from: Macaroni & Cheese: 52 Recipes from Simple to Sublime (Paperback)

This book was simply outstanding. I like to cook in my free time, and I have a lot of cookbooks, but I thought the recipes here were just terrific: clear, easy to follow...and with great results. Plus, you get insights and ideas from some of the best chefs on the world. I never knew that macaroni and cheese could be so delicious in so many ways.