Inspired mac and cheese dishes push beyond the comfort zone

There are lots of reasons one could choose to eat macaroni and cheese tonight. For instance, you may feel happy and content. What better way to celebrate?

Or, you might feel sad and depressed. What better way to console yourself?

But perhaps the most pressing reason is that tomorrow, or the day after, you're beginning the post-holiday diet that was penciled onto your list of resolutions for the new year.

Loosing a few pounds was on my own list. But then "Macaroni & Cheese" by Marlena Spieler (Chronicle Books, $16.95) landed on my desk. One look at the cover photograph — a mound of golden, molten cheese enveloping small cylinders of pasta in a royal-blue bowl — and I was lost.

Spieler's loose, friendly writing style encourages readers to follow her lead and experiment with a wide range of ingredients. The book's title may suggest an overindulgence in the standard mac and cheese of school cafeterias, but the recipes are anything but ordinary.

In Spieler's vocabulary, "macaroni" is used as a broader term for a wide range of pastas, and she pulls her "cheese" from an extensive plate.

The author is an expert at choosing and combining cheeses, and shares her knowledge in the book's 50 recipes, tips and essays.

It's essential, for instance, to begin with a good melting cheese — cheddar, Swiss, jack, provolone, Gouda or Danish fontina — to envelop the pasta shape. Spieler often combines these with a chunky textured cheese such as feta that softens but doesn't completely melt.

Soft cheeses with bloomy rinds, such as camembert, brie and Coulommiers, have delicate flavors that can get lost when paired with too many flavors, while stronger washed rinds such as Taleggio and Port Salut can overwhelm the dish. It's this kind of information that can make the difference between a ho-hum mac and cheese and one that pops.

There's something in the book for every mood and level of cooking experience. Chapters range from quick stove-top tosses to more time-consuming dishes such as Greek Pastitsio and Tuna Noodle that are dressed with bechamel sauce and baked.

A basic soup recipe combines tiny pastas with broth and a shower of Parmesan, then changes course with the addition of zucchini or greens.

Recipes receive liberal doses of pickled peppers and tomatillo salsa, tangy mustard, spicy chorizo and elegant shavings of truffles. There's even a short chapter of sweets if you're so inclined.

Spieler stumbles a bit with her secrets to cooking pasta. She instructs us to use a skimpy 1 ½ quarts of water to a pound of pasta, a major gaffe on some basic information. (It's necessary to use 6 to 8 quarts of water to a pound of pasta to keep the pasta moving freely and to cook to the al dente stage.)

Still, the book has so many great recipes and ideas, it's well worth the relatively low pricetag.

CeCe Sullivan: csullivan@seattletimes.com