Today I'm making macaroni cheese, a firm favourite in the servants hall.

For this recipe, you will need:

Macaroni

Parmesan

Butter

Milk

Breadcrumbs

and to season, salt

and pepper.

Macaroni is the general word for many types of pasta.

But for this, these small tubes are best,

slightly broken up.

I'm in favour of old recipes like this.

Some of my favourite recipes were written last century, before even Queen Victoria was born.

There, I think this is enough.

Now the milk and water is boiling, and I added a pinch of salt, I'll add my macaroni.

Macaroni is best cooked in water and milk, or stock, as it takes on flavour really well

and it becomes lovely and soft.

I'm going to slightly under-cook this, as it will cook some more in the oven.

I've lined my dish with butter, and now I'm going to lay half the macaroni on the bottom.

I'm going to dot about a third of the butter

over this macaroni

spreading it out evenly.

I'm going to add some pepper

and sprinkle over half of the cheese.

And then repeat with the rest of the macaroni.

When I was a child, macaroni meant an overdressed gentleman: a flamboyant gentleman.

[laughs]

Some people pour a sauce over their macaroni, but this takes more time and makes it taste a bit...

This is lighter, simpler and altogether better, especially as it's served as a side dish.

For the final layer, I'm going to mix the cheese with some breadcrumbs.

and then sprinkle it over the top.

A drizzle of melted butter

And now this needs about 15 minutes in a hot oven, finishing with a salamander to broil it.

It needs a nice, golden brown, crisp top.

This is a very good dish served with boiled meat, cold meat, or the remains of yesterday's vegetables.

Although Mrs Warwick the housekeeper prefers hers served with sausages,

and I have to say I'm inclined to agree.

There you are - macaroni cheese.