Golden n crispy, oozing with that ultimate cheese pull :) serve with our herby marinara sauce for the best pairing experience 🔥. You can make these in advance and keep them in the fridge ready for breading, you can batch cook these and freeze in advance, or if you want to use up some leftover Mac & Cheese, then this is an amazing, inexpensive, fun way.
Ingredients (Makes 4 portions of Mac & Cheese or 15/20 Mac & Cheese Balls):
570ml milk
50g butter
50g plain flour
200g macaroni pasta
160g strong cheddar grated
30g mozzarella cheese grated
A little Parmesan for grating
Old style English Mustard
Garlic Powder / Granules
Garlic Cloves
400ml Passata
Caster Suger
Dried Oregano
Fresh Basil
Eggs
Panko Breadcrumbs
Sunflower Oil / Deep Fat Fryer
To Make Jo's Marinara Sauce:
Heat a little olive oil and cook 2 crushed garlic cloves for 1 min, then tip in around 300 - 400ml of passata, 1 tsp caster sugar, and 2 tsp dried oregano. Season with salt and pepper and simmer for 5-10 mins until the sauce thickens, finish with freshly torn basil leaves.
To Make Jo's Mac & Cheese Al Forno:
Check out the full version of our Mac n Cheese Recipe! In a large saucepan add salted boiling water, then your macaroni, and cook for around 10 mins until al dente. Meanwhile, mix your butter and flour to make a roux in another saucepan. Take your pan, off the heat, gradually Introduce and mix in the milk to make sure it remains smooth, seasoning, and adding a few teaspoons of old-style English Mustard and garlic powder/granules.
Return the sauce to heat and once bubbling, remove from the heat, stir in all the cheese, reserving a little for sprinkling over top. Drain the Macorini and add it into a casserole dish, pour over the sauce, sprinkle with the remaining cheese, a little grated parmesan, and bake in the oven (al forno) at 200 degrees celsius for 10 mins, until bubbling, golden, and delicious. Set aside to cool down for a few mins.
To Make Jordan’s Mac & Cheese Balls:
You need to make sure the Mac & Cheese is fridge cold before making these! Otherwise, they will fall apart. Set up your breading station with some beaten eggs in a bowl and panko breadcrumbs on a plate. Heat your Sunflower Oil or your deep fat dryer to 175 degrees celsius and switch on your oven to 100 degrees celsius.
Take golf ball sized handfuls (plastic gloves are handy here) of the mac & cheese and roll into golf ball size round balls, ensuring all the macaroni is set and not sticking out the sides! Dip these into the beaten egg, then the panko breadcrumbs, ensuring they are fully coated. Deep fry for 1-2 mins per side, or 3-4 mins per side if frozen. Pop into the oven for a few mins to keep warm whilst you finish frying the rest.
To Plate:
Warm up your Marinara Sauce and take your warm plate.
Pop 3 evenly spaced teaspoons full of warm Marinara sauce on the plate and sit 3 Mac & Cheese Balls on top.
Sprinkle generously with rock salt, and a little cracked black pepper.
Sprinkle over a little freshly chopped basil and serve immediately!
Bellissimo!!
