Mary Berry Macaroni Cheese Recipe

If you’ve searched for Mary Berry’s macaroni cheese recipe and ended up down a rabbit hole of slightly different ingredient lists, you’re not imagining it. She’s published more than one version. There’s a freezer-friendly one from her BBC series At Home, and then there’s this one, from Mary Berry’s Cookery Course, which is the version I make and the one this post covers. The main things that set it apart: Parmesan alongside the Cheddar, Dijon mustard stirred into the sauce, and cherry tomatoes on top before it goes in the oven. Yes, really. We’ll get to those.

It’s a proper baked macaroni cheese, creamy all the way through with a golden top, and it feeds four comfortably alongside some crusty bread. It takes about 45 minutes start to finish, which puts it firmly in the “achievable on a weeknight if you’re not completely broken” category rather than the “quick tea” one. Worth knowing before you commit.

What makes this different from the mac and cheese you grew up with

For me, growing up, macaroni cheese meant a thick, stodgy sauce and a slightly gluey texture by the time it reached the table. Fine. Not exciting.

Mary Berry’s version is noticeably lighter in texture because the sauce doesn’t overthicken. The Parmesan alongside the Cheddar gives it more depth and a slight sharpness that stops it tasting like pure dairy. And the Dijon mustard, which I’ll address properly in the FAQs because I know some of you are already side-eyeing it, genuinely makes the cheese flavour more pronounced rather than adding any obvious mustard heat.

The cherry tomatoes on top are the real talking point. I’ll be honest: the first time I made this, I thought it sounded odd. Tomatoes on macaroni cheese? But they soften and blister in the oven and the slight acidity they bring actually cuts through the richness really nicely. My eight-year-old picks them off. My teenagers eat them without comment, which in this house counts as a ringing endorsement.

What you need

This serves four. I’d say generously four if you’re serving it with bread, or four people who aren’t that hungry. For a family of five where two of them are teenagers, I’d scale it up.

• 200g short-cut macaroni
• 30g butter, plus a little extra for greasing
• 30g plain flour
• 600ml hot whole milk
• 115g mature Cheddar, grated
• 60g Parmesan, grated
• 1 rounded tsp Dijon mustard
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 12 cherry tomatoes, halved
• A small handful of fresh parsley, chopped, to serve

A note on the cheese: grate it yourself. Pre-grated bags have a coating on them that stops them clumping in the packet but also stops them melting smoothly into a sauce. It’s one of those small things that makes a genuine difference.

How to make it

Preheat your oven to 200°C/180°C fan/Gas 6. Lightly butter a medium, shallow baking dish and set it aside.

Get your pasta on first. Cook the macaroni in well-salted boiling water for about 10 minutes, or a minute less than the packet says, until it’s just tender but still has a slight bite. It’ll continue cooking in the oven, so if it’s soft going in, it’ll turn mushy by the time it comes out. Drain it well and leave it to one side.

While the pasta cooks, make the sauce. Melt the butter in a large saucepan over a medium heat, then stir in the flour. Cook this roux for about a minute, stirring constantly, until it’s a pale sandy paste and smells slightly biscuity. This step matters: if you don’t cook the flour out, the sauce will taste of it.

Now, gradually add the hot milk, a good splash at a time, whisking as you go. This is where lumpy sauces happen if you rush it. Add a bit, whisk until smooth, add a bit more. Once all the milk is in, keep stirring over a medium heat until the sauce thickens and coats the back of a spoon. It takes about five minutes and you need to stay with it.

Take the pan off the heat. Stir in most of the cheese, keeping back a handful of each for the top, along with the mustard. Season well with salt and pepper, taste it, and adjust. The sauce should be savoury and quite punchy before the pasta goes in, because the macaroni will dilute things slightly.

Fold the drained pasta into the sauce until it’s all well coated. Pour the whole lot into your prepared baking dish, scatter over the reserved cheese, then press the halved cherry tomatoes cut-side up across the top.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until it’s bubbling at the edges, golden on top, and the tomatoes have softened and started to caramelise slightly at the edges. Leave it to rest for five minutes before serving, partly so it settles and partly so nobody burns the roof of their mouth. Scatter over the parsley if you’re using it.

About those cherry tomatoes

I’ve seen a few versions of this recipe online that quietly drop the cherry tomatoes, presumably because they seem like an odd choice. I’d encourage you to keep them in at least once before you decide.

They don’t become part of the sauce or sink in. They sit on top, blister a little in the heat, and what you get is these slightly jammy, slightly sharp little pockets of flavour dotted across the golden top. It makes the dish look more interesting than a plain cheese-crusted bake, and the acidity genuinely balances the richness of the sauce in a way that a sprinkle of paprika just doesn’t.

If someone in your household genuinely hates cooked tomatoes, leave them off that half of the dish. We have this exact situation with my youngest, and it’s not a problem.

Will the kids actually eat it?

Mostly, yes, and that’s a realistic answer rather than an enthusiastic one. It’s creamy pasta with cheese on top, which covers a lot of ground in terms of child-friendliness.

The Parmesan is the thing I’d flag. If your kids are used to a very mild, basic mac and cheese, the Parmesan brings a slightly stronger, more savoury note that some younger children find unexpected. Mine are old enough that this isn’t an issue, but if you’ve got a very cheese-averse small person you might want to use all Cheddar the first time and introduce the Parmesan gradually.

The mustard, as I’ll cover below, isn’t detectable in the finished dish. Don’t worry about it.

The tomatoes are personal preference. My eight-year-old removes them with great ceremony every single time and then eats everything else perfectly happily.

Making it ahead and freezing

You can assemble the whole dish up to a day ahead, cover it tightly, and refrigerate it unbaked. When you’re ready to cook, give it a few extra minutes in the oven since it’ll be going in cold. The sauce might look a little thicker when you take it out of the fridge, but it loosens up as it heats through.

For freezing: Mary Berry has a separate recipe specifically designed to be cooked from frozen (it’s the one from her BBC series), and that version has a slightly different method that accounts for the texture changes that happen when pasta and béchamel freeze and thaw. This Cookery Course version can be frozen, but the texture of the sauce isn’t quite as good after thawing as it is fresh. If batch cooking and freezing is your main goal, the At Home version is worth seeking out for that purpose.

What I’d change if I were making it for a different occasion

As written, this is a side dish or a light main. If I’m making it as the main event for five of us, I scale it up and add something alongside: a simple green salad, some good bread, maybe some steamed tenderstem broccoli for the people in this family who will eat it without complaint. On its own it’s rich enough that a smaller portion than you’d expect is actually quite filling.

I’ve also made it with a layer of crispy smoked bacon bits stirred through before baking, which goes down extremely well and adds a bit of textural contrast. It’s not Mary Berry’s recipe at that point, but it’s a very good version of a very good thing.

One genuine limitation: this isn’t a 20-minute dinner. Between the pasta water coming to the boil, the roux, and the bake time, you’re looking at 45 minutes minimum, and that’s assuming nothing goes sideways with the sauce. It’s absolutely worth it, but set your expectations before a Tuesday evening when everyone is hungry at six o’clock and you haven’t started yet.

For a genuinely quick cheesy pasta, this isn’t the one. For a proper, comforting baked macaroni cheese that tastes like it came from someone who actually knows what they’re doing, it absolutely is.

FAQs

Can you taste the mustard in Mary Berry’s macaroni cheese?

No, you really can’t, and I promise I’m not just saying that to get you to make it. A teaspoon of Dijon stirred into a large quantity of cheese sauce doesn’t make it taste like mustard. What it does is sharpen the cheese flavour and stop the sauce tasting flat. It’s the same principle as adding a tiny bit of mustard to a cheese toastie filling: it doesn’t shout, it just makes everything taste more of itself. If you’re genuinely worried, start with half a teaspoon the first time.

Can I use a different cheese?

Yes. The Cheddar is the main event and should stay: use mature rather than mild, because mild Cheddar disappears into the sauce. The Parmesan can be swapped for Grana Padano if that’s what you’ve got. Some people use a bit of Gruyère in place of the Parmesan for a nuttier, slightly more complex flavour, which works well. Avoid anything too wet or rubbery: mozzarella doesn’t melt cleanly into a béchamel the way it does on a pizza.

Why is my sauce lumpy?

Usually one of two things: the milk went in too fast, or it went in cold. Add the milk gradually and whisk constantly, and use hot milk rather than fridge-cold. If you do end up with lumps despite your best efforts, take the pan off the heat and whisk hard, or pass it through a sieve and carry on. It’s recoverable.

Can you freeze macaroni cheese?

You can, though the texture of the sauce changes a little. For a version specifically designed to be frozen and cooked from frozen, Mary Berry’s At Home recipe is the better choice. This Cookery Course version is at its best fresh or made ahead and refrigerated overnight.

What do you serve with macaroni cheese?

Crusty bread is the classic pairing and genuinely the right call. A simple green salad or some steamed broccoli works well alongside if you want to feel like a balanced human. We sometimes have it with a tomato salad in summer, which echoes the cherry tomatoes on top and feels quite deliberate even when it isn’t.

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