Easy macaroni cheese

You can also flavour your breadcrumbs before scattering. Try tossing them with chopped dried herbs like rosemary or thyme, finely grated parmesan, dried chilli flakes or finely chopped garlic.

Which type of cheese do you use in mac and cheese?

The beauty of mac ‘n’ cheese is you can add almost any cheese you like to the base sauce. The most common cheeses to use are cheddar, gruyère and parmesan but blue cheese, mozzarella and smoked cheese all work well.

Cheddar is a good base cheese as it has a rounded flavour and melts well into a white sauce; gruyère adds nuttiness and complexity; parmesan is strong so a little goes a long way – it’s also great to sprinkle on top as it will add an extra crunch to the top.

Blue cheeses like Roquefort or stilton and smoked cheeses are both very strongly flavoured and can be quite overpowering so bear that in mind if using. Mozzarella gives a delightfully ‘stringy’ finish to a mac ‘n’ cheese but it doesn’t have much flavour on its own so you’ll need to add cheddar or parmesan as well.

Mac and cheese recipe