Step 1

Preheat the oven to 220C / 200C Fan / Gas Mark 7.

Step 2

Cook the macaroni until it’s a bit less done than normal – a couple of minutes less than you would usually do. The brand I use takes 10 minutes normally, so I give it 8 minutes for macaroni cheese.

Step 3

While the macaroni is cooking, make the cheese sauce. Melt the butter in a medium sized pan on a low heat. When the butter is foaming, add the flour and stir until it’s mixed in. Then keep cooking for 2 minutes, stirring frequently. It takes guts to do this. It looks like something is going to go wrong but it doesn’t!

Step 4

Very gradually add the milk, stirring constantly. Make sure each bit of milk is incorporated before adding the next bit. If you do this slowly on a very low heat, you should end up with a perfectly smooth cheese sauce with no lumps and no need to whisk. However, if it does go wrong for some reason, you can always use a whisk to beat out the lumps.

Step 5

When all the milk is incorporated, add the mustard, salt and pepper. (N.B. I use slightly salted butter, so I don’t add any extra salt here.) Then add half the cheese, stir to combine and turn off.

Step 6

When the pasta is done, drain it, retaining a little bit of the cooking water.

Step 7

Tip the pasta and a couple of tablespoonfuls of the cooking water into the cheese sauce and stir.

Step 8

Pour the macaroni cheese into a shallow ovenproof dish and sprinkle over the remaining cheese.

Step 9

Bake in the oven for 10 minutes. The top should be brown but the bottom should still be saucy and the macaroni should be perfectly cooked.