A HARTE APPETITE: CHEESY: MACARONI AND CHEESE DUO IS DISH WITH SOUL

History is full of admirable pairings: Antony and Cleopatra, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Abbott and Costello. But none is more worthy of admiration, in my judgment, than macaroni and cheese.

Macaroni and cheese, along, perhaps, with red beans and rice or bacon and eggs, is one of the premier dynamic duos of the food world. It is a dish with soul. That's why it's always been on the menu at soul food restaurants around the country. (You'd be hard pressed to find a better version than the one at the M & G Diner on 125th Street in Harlem, where they know what real soul food is.) But it has also become a fashionable new item on the menu at countless upscale restaurants as well, where it can be laced with elegant additions like sliced truffles or bits of lobster and sold for as much as $17 a serving. In fact, recently the essentially plebeian dish was named by Esquire magazine as one of the trendiest foods around, ranking right up there with the more patrician Chilean sea bass.

Whether it's served plain or fancy, macaroni and cheese is pure comfort food. Probably this is because so many of us remember it as one of our childhood favorites, most likely made from one of those ubiquitous blue Kraft boxes. Kraft is the dominant purveyor of packaged macaroni and cheese selling $500 million of the stuff a year for nearly 80 percent of the market. And Kraft plans to keep it that way. Recognizing that kids often carry their eating habits into adulthood, Kraft wants to lure young consumers, so a couple of years ago it introduced a version with macaroni in the shape of superhero logos such as Batman and Robin. Just this year Kraft invented a new microwave-prepared configuration aimed at pre-teen-agers. In neighboring Canada, such efforts probably weren't even necessary, because there Kraft macaroni and cheese is already the most purchased packaged grocery item in the country. Canadians eat more instant macaroni and cheese per capita than any other people in the world, and Kraft is the overwhelming choice. Enterprising students at the Universite Canadienne en France even have Kraft macaroni and cheese shipped to them where they sell it to homesick classmates for prices as high as $5 a box. And the dish figures prominently in a popular song lyric by the Canadian group, Bare Naked Ladies. It goes, "If I had a million dollars, we wouldn't have to eat Kraft Dinners but we would eat Kraft Dinners; of course we would we'd just eat more!" Fans, by the way, routinely toss cooked macaroni and cheese onstage when this verse is sung.

Kraft comes by its market hegemony honestly. Back in the 1930s, having previously patented the formula for American cheese, it introduced a grated version, the "cheese dust" you still find in a packet inside its boxes of macaroni and cheese dinner. But the product didn't sell very well, until, that is, a clever salesman in St. Louis rubber-banded packets of the cheese powder to boxes of macaroni and persuaded store owners to sell the combination as a single product. It didn't take long before Kraft gave up trying to sell the cheese packets individually and began instead placing them inside the box of macaroni. The "Kraft Dinner" was born. Its cheap price helped it catch on quickly, especially with the commencement of wartime meat rationing. And the rest, as they say, is history. Today, in market surveys, fully one third of Americans name macaroni and cheese as their single favorite cheese dish. Homemade macaroni and cheese, of course, was invented long before Kraft got into the act. In fact, as Jeffrey Steingarten, famed food critic for Vogue magazine, points out, the recipe for macaroni and cheese is likely the very first recipe ever printed on the back of an American box. It goes back to 1802, when Italian pasta was the rage among the upper classes. A French immigrant, Lewis Fresnaye, set up shop in Philadelphia, hired some Italian pasta makers, and began selling vermicelli and macaroni. But cookbooks were scarce (the first American one was not published until 1796, just six years earlier) and were costly. So Fresnaye wrapped his product in sheets of paper with recipes printed on the back. Macaroni itself, of course, goes back much further than that, at least as far back as the 15th century when, as food historian Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat tells us, the first production of pasta on any kind of industrial scale began in Naples. Though other Italian towns, notably Bergamo, claim to be the home of macaroni, all Italians reject the notion that Marco Polo brought it back from China. They are probably right. In Sicily, 3000-year-old extrusion dyes for pasta have been discovered. Toussaint-Samat says the term macaroni is definitely Neapolitan and may be related to one of the oldest of the traditional characters of the Commedia dell'Arte, the glutton, Mascherone. Another theory is that it is a pun on the Italian phrase, "Si buoni ma caroni" (So good, but expensive), presumably uttered by a Neapolitan prince upon his first encounter with the pasta with a hole in the middle. Another explanation is that the term derives from the Sicilian word for making into dough by force, "maccarruni." The reference to macaroni in the tune Yankee Doodle, by the way, was a dig by the British against the colonists. The term had come to mean chic or fashionable, which the ragged American troops clearly were not. Now that macaroni and cheese has itself become fashionable, it's a shame to limit yourself to the prepackaged kind. The real thing is almost as easy to make and far more satisfying. Moreover, when you make macaroni and cheese from scratch, you can be inventive and give the dish some real character. Essentially, of course, you have but two options to consider when trying to elevate macaroni and cheese above the ordinary. You can fiddle with the macaroni, or pasta, or you can fiddle with the cheese. Thus, penne or orecchiette pasta give the dish a novel look and cheeses other than cheddar, such as Gorgonzola, Asiago or even goat cheese can transform it into something distinguished. Missouri native and New York's foremost cheesemonger, Steven Jenkins, recommends Crowley cheese, something in between a Colby and a Cheddar, for its melting quality. The following recipes run the gamut from the traditional to the unconventional. All confirm that macaroni and cheese are, like love and marriage, a wonderful union. It's a pity to have one without the other.

Juanita Jordan's Mac & CheeseThis recipe is reputedly the one served at Michael Jordan's restaurant in Chicago. It's a classic version that will serve four people, or one Bulls' player. For an interesting variation, substitute Gruyere cheese for the cheddar.

Ingredients.

2 pounds macaroni

1 1/2 cups cream

5 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1/2 cup Romano cheese 4 tablespoons butter Directions.

Cook macaroni and drain. Heat cream over low heat. Add half the cheeses and the butter. Stir in macaroni. Season to taste with salt and pepper and spoon into casserole dish. Top with remaining cheeses and bake at 450 degrees until top is golden brown.

Upscale Macaroni and Cheese This recipe, adapted from one in Bon Appetit magazine, is about as sophisticated as macaroni and cheese can get. It may not be for kids, but it will surely please adults.

Ingredients.

2 tablespoons butter

3 large red bell peppers

5 stalks celery 1 1/2 cups cream 1 1/2 cups half and half 1 pound blue cheese, crumbled 1 teaspoon celery seeds Cayenne pepper 3 egg yolks 1/2 cup celery leaves 1 pound penne pasta, cooked and drained 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese Directions: Melt butter over medium-high heat. Cut peppers into 1/2-inch pieces and saute until they begin to soften. Remove from heat and season with salt and pepper. Combine cream, half-and-half, and blue cheese and stir over low heat until cheese melts. Remove from heat, add celery seeds, and season with cayenne, salt, and pepper. Beat yolks to blend and gradually whisk in half of cheese sauce. Add to remaining sauce and blend. Chop celery leaves and add to sauce. Combine sauce, pasta, and peppers and transfer to buttered 4-quart baking dish. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and bake at 400 degrees until brown and bubbly. Serves 12.

Light Macaroni and Cheese Light macaroni and cheese may seem like an oxymoron, but this recipe from the Julia Child of vegetarian cooking, Deborah Madison, shows that the dish can be reconciled with a low-fat diet. Other recipes for macaroni and cheese can be slimmed down using the same techniques as this one, namely reduced fat milk and cheese and less butter. But the real secret to the success of this version, adapted from a recent issue of Cooking Light magazine, is the addition of smoked Gouda whose unique flavor compensates nicely for the missing fat and calories.

Ingredients.

2 slices white bread 2 cups 2 percent milk 1/2 cup thinly sliced onion 1 teaspoon black peppercorns 4 sprigs parsley 2 sprigs thyme 1 bay leaf 1 clove garlic, minced 4 teaspoons flour 1/2 teaspoon prepared mustard 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper 8 ounces macaroni 1 1/2 cups shredded reduced-fat sharp cheddar cheese 1/3 cup shredded smoked Gouda cheese Directions: Combine milk, onion, peppercorns, parsley, thyme, bay leaf, and garlic and bring to a boil over medium heat. Remove from heat and let stand 30 minutes. Strain and discard solids. Whisk 1/2 cup milk mixture into flour and add back to remaining milk mixture along with mustard, salt, and red pepper, stirring well. Cook macaroni and drain. Stir into milk mixture with cheeses and spoon into 8-inch square baking dish coated with cooking spray. Process bread into coarse crumbs and sprinkle over top. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes until lightly browned. Serves 5. Got a culinary question you'd like to ask or an idea you'd like to see treated in this column? Send your suggestions to A Harte Appetite, c/o The Southeast Missourian, P.O. Box 699, Cape Girardeau, Mo., 63702-0699 or by e-mail to tharte@semovm.semo.edu