Scratcheroni and Cheese

Several years ago, Gazpacho gave me the brilliant idea of adding sour cream to a cheese sauce when making macaroni and cheese. This recipe takes a remarkably short amount of time to whip up, but is worth it when you really want macaoni & cheese but don't want to face one more boxed dinner. Unfortunately...or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, the recipe is highly imprecise, which means that you can alter it for any amount of persons you want.

Scratcheroni & Cheese

Macaroni (or other pasta shape if you prefer)

Cook this until al dente and drain it thoroughly. While you're cooking this, create a white sauce. I like mine thick, so it's usually equal proportions of flour and butter and about 1/3 cup milk for every 2 TBSP butter, but you can thin it however you want. Once your white sauce is nice & thick, add in SHARP (or Extra-Sharp) Cheddar cheese, a heaping dollop of sour cream, and cook/stir until the cheese is melted. Stir this all over into your pasta, add salt & pepper (and more sour cream if you want) and enjoy!

The sour cream makes it creamier, holds the cheese in suspension better so that leftovers aren't all greezy and separating, and it adds a piquancy that the mac-from-a-box just can't achieve (though you can stir in some sour cream and a little dill weed if you want to better up your box lunch).