The ultimate comfort food... Gluten-free Mac & Cheese

GF Mac & Cheese (better than my mom's...Shhhh)

Wow, I am so good! Seriously... Since going GF about 6 years ago, I haven't had a good mac & cheese. I've had frozen mac & cheese, and that yucky one in the box. I gave up after trying to doctor them and coming up with a goopy, yucky mess. But that doesn't mean that my need for comfort food is gone (can't you tell by the enchilada pie the other day?)

I have seen many, many recipes for this timeless comfort food on the Internet and they all look good. Truth is, I'm sure they are all good. But I wanted mine to be awesome! Instead of using flour to thicken the cheese sauce, the top three options out there are GF flour mix, corn starch and rice flour. I chose to go with some sweet rice flour I have in the cabinet, which I normally use for GF crepes. I also just grabbed all the different kinds of cheese in the fridge, so don't get nervous about that. Make sure you put some cheddar in there, then switch it up and use whatever looks good to you. The main point is to have a gooey, cheesy cream sauce that bakes into a wonderful dish that brings back comfort memories. OK, this is better actually than mom used to make, but I'll deny it if anyone tells her that (sorry Mom!)

The rest is simple...pasta, cheese, butter, milk, bake, viola! Give it a try and I guarantee you'll fool those G-Eaters out there. My husband ate two plates full and said he'd eat this over any gluten mac & cheese out there. Score!

GF Mac & Cheese 
2 1/2 cups GF pasta (I used DeBole's corn elbows)
1/2 stick butter
2 Tbs Sweet Rice Flour
2 cups milk
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dried mustard
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
2 cups shredded Mexican cheese
1/2 cup chopped cheese cubes (I had Jarlsburg and Cheddar left and chopped it up)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cook pasta with plenty of water and salt. Take it out while just under al dente since it will cook some more in the oven.
3. While pasta cooks, melt butter in a pan. Add flour and whisk till mixed well. Then add milk slowly and keep mixing till blended well and bubbly. Let it simmer while stirring and thickening. It should be about as thick as a good thick gravy. If it isn't, go ahead and add a little more rice flour or milk, depending on which way you need to go.
4. Add the cheese and mix till all the cheese is melted.
5. Add drained pasta to cheese mixture and blend.
6. Pour pasta mixture into a greased 8x8 glass baking dish.
7, Sprinkle with a handful of shredded cheese (optional) and bake for 30 minutes.
8. Let it sit for about 10 minutes before serving (if you can wait that long).

I love the way it looks when it comes out of the oven...yum!

Enjoy!