Black & Blue Mac and Cheese

For the mac and cheese:

1. Preheat oven to 375 F.

2. Cook pasta in very salty water for two minutes less than the al dente cooking time listed on your package. Drain pasta and set aside.

3. Melt butter in large saucepan over medium heat (I use the same pot I just cooked the pasta in). Add flour and whisk to form a roux. Cook roux for about 1 minute until fragrant.

4. Slowly stream beer into roux, whisking constantly to work out any lumps of roux.

5. Whisk milk into sauce. Let it cook until sauce has thickened and just barely reached a simmer, 7-10 minutes.

6. When sauce has thickened, remove from heat and stir in white cheddar cheese until cheese is completely melted.

7. Fold half of the blue cheese into the sauce and reserve the rest for topping the finished pasta.

8. Add cooked pasta into the sauce and stir to coat. Spoon mac and cheese into a large baking dish (you can use one 9×13 pan or divide it into smaller, single-serving size dishes if you like) and top with toasted breadcrumbs (instructions below).

For the breadcrumbs:

9. Melt butter in a medium-sized skillet over medium-high heat. Add breadcrumbs and stir to combine. Toast breadcrumbs, stirring occasionally, until they’re lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Remove toasted breadcrumbs from heat and sprinkle evenly across the top of the macaroni and cheese.

For the assembly:

10. Bake mac and cheese at 375 F for 20-25 minutes until breadcrumbs have browned and edges of pasta have crisped up. Remove from oven and top with remaining blue cheese and chopped parsley. Serve immediately.