Next up on the Down The Hatch recipe series is the ultimate comfort food: mac’n cheese. Albeit a slightly punchier version guaranteed to send you to a cheesy nirvana of sorts. This dish goes awesome with a glass of chilled Chardonnay and will be elevated to epic with a couple of squirts of Sriracha sauce.

Ingredients:
340g macaroni
100g breadcrumbs
For the cheese sauce
40g butter
40g plain flour
1 tsp English mustard powder
200ml milk
285ml double cream
200g dolcelatte or gorgonzola cheese
115g parmesan, grated
115g mature cheddar, grated
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method:
Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6.
Cook the macaroni in a large pan of boiling salted water, for 8-10 minutes, or until just cooked. (It needs to be just undercooked as the pasta will be cooked again in the oven.) Drain, return to the pan and set aside.
For the sauce, put the butter, flour and mustard in a small pan set over a medium heat and cook until the butter has melted. Mix the milk and cream together in a jug and add a little to the flour and butter in the pan, stirring well. Keep adding the milk mixture, bit by bit, stirring well each time.
Once all the milk has been added, turn up the heat and boil for a minute or two. The sauce will thicken considerably, then remove the pan from the heat. Add two-thirds of the dolcelatte (or gorgonzola), cheddar and parmesan to the sauce while it is still hot and stir together until well combined. It may be a bit lumpy, but that is fine. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Add the sauce to the pasta mixture and stir everything together. Spoon the mixture into a shallow casserole dish or your individual Strong Island enamel mugs.
Sprinkle the remaining cheese and the breadcrumbs over the top and bake in the oven for about 20-30 minutes, or until the cheese starts to bubble and the topping is golden-brown.