After my last, painfully terrible attempt at mac & cheese, I felt that I needed to make amends. Thus, I turned back to Ina, who is generally reliable and delicious. Her baked mac & cheese is particularly awesome. I made it for Tim's 30th birthday and it was a hit.
This time, I shook things up a wee bit. I got some cauliflower in my CSA share, and decided to incorporate it into the mac and cheese, inspired by all those "fool-your-kids-and-force-them-to-unknowingly-eat-vegetables-under-the-guise-of-deliciously-decadent/low-brow-foods" books out there, as well as the last Ina recipe I cooked.
This was awesome: crispy, cheesy, creamy!
I followed Ina's recipe except for the topping (skipped the tomatoes, used panko instead of fresh breadcrumbs), but added a head of cauliflower, cut into mini-florets and boiled in the leftover pasta water for about 4-5 minutes.