Macaroni Cheese

What is it?

Macaroni pasta sits in a rich cheese sauce made with mature cheddar and other cheeses, then gets a breadcrumb crust on top. It comes as a chilled ready meal from Charlie Bigham's, aimed at oven baking rather than microwaving, so the sauce can thicken and the topping brown. Compared with other dishes in the range, it's one of the simpler ones, built around pasta, sauce and crunch rather than vegetables or meat. Slice it open and you'll find short tubes coated throughout, with the cheese sauce doing most of the work and the crust giving a bit of texture at the centre.