Wagyu Ground Beef Mac & Cheese

Servings

Prep Time

15 minutes

Cook Time

45 minutes

The magic of this pasta dish lies in the use of sodium citrate, a culinary salt found easily online that acts as an emulsifier in the cheese sauce. Using sodium citrate means your cheese sauce doesn’t require another binder like a roux to hold it together, making your sauce silky smooth with the ultimate cheese flavor.

For this recipe, we used a combination of cheeses chosen to accent the flavor of the SRF ground Wagyu. We used an Italian-style table cheese to provide a buttery and nutty base, a taleggio to add a punch of funky meatiness, and finished it off with a young smoked gouda. We’ve provided our recommended style of cheese plus the brand we used in parentheses, but tasting multiple kinds of cheese to pair with the beef and your palate is half of the fun!

Author:

Katy Osuna

Ingredients

1 lb. American Wagyu ground beef
1 tablespoon of beef tallow or other neutral fat
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
¼ of a yellow onion, thinly sliced
½ tablespoon of unsalted butter
½ teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of tomato paste
¼ cup of full-bodied red wine
1 cup of milk
½ tablespoon of sodium citrate
1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard
5 teaspoons of Worcestershire sauce
6 ounces of fontina or gruyere (we used Point Reyes Toma), grated
3 ounces of taleggio (we used Ca De Ambros Taleggio), grated
2 ounces of young smoked gouda (we used Artikaas Youngsters Hickory Smoked Gouda), grated
½ a pound of cavatappi pasta

Directions

Heat a stainless steel or enamel-coated cast iron pot over medium-high heat. Add the tallow and allow to melt. Once the tallow is near the smoke point, crumble the ground beef into the pan in as thin a layer as possible and season with salt and pepper.
Don’t turn the beef until the first side is browned and crispy. Then scrape it with a wooden spoon or spatula to turn and brown the other side.
Once the beef is cooked, remove it with a slotted spoon and set aside, leaving as much of the fat in the pot as possible.
Turn the heat to medium-low and in the same pan, add the butter and thinly sliced onions. Let the onions caramelize for about 20 minutes, stirring every few minutes to prevent burning. They will develop a golden-brown color and start to fall apart. Add a pinch of salt to season.
Meanwhile, cook the pasta according to the package instructions, making sure to season the water with a generous amount of salt. When it is ready, set it aside as you make the sauce.
When the onions are ready, add the tomato paste, stirring until it coats the onions.
Add the wine to deglaze, scraping the bottom of the pot to loosen the browned bits of beef and onion. The wine should cook off quickly until it is thick enough to coat the onions. But don’t let it get too thick and start sticking to the bottom of the pot.
Add the milk, scraping the bottom of the pot again to remove any remaining brown bits. Heat the milk until it just starts to simmer, then turn the heat to medium-low. Do not let the milk come to a boil.
Whisk in the sodium citrate until it is dissolved.
Slowly start adding your cheeses, a small handful (a couple of ounces) at a time, whisking vigorously. Do not add the next handful until the previous one is fully melted. The milk will start to froth and foam, but once enough cheese is added, it will settle. Using a whisk allows the caramelized onions to break apart a little bit while adding the cheese, but they still remain relatively intact. You can also use an immersion blender instead of a whisk to prevent the cheese sauce from breaking, but it will incorporate the onions into the sauce more fully.
Add the ground beef and the pasta into the sauce and turn the heat up to medium, stirring until everything is heated through. Serve as is, or put into a casserole dish and broil in an oven for about 5 minutes until the top is golden brown.