Mac and Cheese Pizza

The last weeks of high school have a quality that nobody tells you about: they are both interminable and instantaneous. Every class period feels long. Every day feels short. I am sitting in rooms I have sat in for four years and seeing them the way you see a place when you know you are about to leave it — with the clarity of impending absence.

Senior prom was Saturday night. I went with a group — Jada, three other girls, no dates, because we decided collectively that the best prom is a prom where nobody is performing romance and everyone is simply having fun. We wore dresses that our mothers approved of and shoes that our feet did not. The venue was the convention center downtown, decorated in silver and blue, and the DJ played exactly the right mix of current and throwback and we danced until my feet were a medical emergency.

Mama took approximately seven hundred photographs before we left the house. Daddy stood in the doorway and looked at me in my dress and did not speak for long enough that Mama said, "Marcus, say something," and Daddy said, "You look like your grandmother." He meant MawMaw Shirley. He meant it as the highest compliment. I accepted it as one.

After prom we went back to Jada's house and ate pizza and took off our shoes and sat on her bedroom floor and Jada said, "We are never going to be in the same school again," and the sentence sat in the room like a guest nobody had invited. She will be at Southern. I will be at LSU. Fifteen minutes apart. A different world. We did not cry — Jada and I are not criers, which is a lie, we cry constantly, but not in front of each other because we have an unspoken agreement that crying in front of each other is permitted only on major holidays and funerals. Instead we ate more pizza and talked about what it would look like to be nineteen, twenty, twenty-five, thirty. We made plans that we will not keep and promises that we will, and the difference between the two is something only time can sort.

I did not cook this week. I ate prom pizza and Mama's baked chicken and MawMaw Shirley's leftover pound cake and I did not feel the need to produce anything in the kitchen. Sometimes the kitchen rests when you rest. The stove will be there Monday.

We didn’t plan the pizza that night — Jada’s mom just ordered it, the way moms do when they know a group of girls in formal dresses is about to descend on their kitchen floor and need something easy and real. But sitting there with my heels in the corner and Jada’s words still hanging in the air, that pizza was exactly right: warm, a little indulgent, the kind of food that doesn’t ask anything of you. Mac and cheese pizza is what I’ll make the next time I need that same feeling — the one where the night has been big and beautiful and a little sad all at once, and you just need something that tastes like staying.

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 20 minutes | Total Time: 35 minutes | Servings: 6

Ingredients

1 lb prepared pizza dough (store-bought or homemade)
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cups elbow macaroni, cooked and drained
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup whole milk
1 1/2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, shredded, divided
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
Salt and black pepper to taste
2 tablespoons breadcrumbs (optional, for topping)

Instructions

Preheat oven. Heat your oven to 450°F. Lightly grease a large baking sheet or pizza pan with olive oil.
Make the cheese sauce. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter. Whisk in the flour and cook for 1 minute. Gradually pour in the milk, whisking constantly, until the sauce thickens, about 3–4 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in 1 cup of the cheddar, the garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, salt, and pepper until smooth.
Combine mac and sauce. Fold the cooked macaroni into the cheese sauce until fully coated.
Shape the dough. On a lightly floured surface, stretch or roll the pizza dough into a 12-inch round or rectangle. Transfer to the prepared pan.
Assemble the pizza. Spread the mac and cheese mixture evenly over the dough, leaving a 1-inch border for the crust. Top with the remaining 1/2 cup cheddar and the mozzarella. Sprinkle with breadcrumbs if using.
Bake. Bake for 16–20 minutes, until the crust is golden and the cheese on top is bubbly and lightly browned at the edges.
Slice and serve. Let the pizza rest for 3–5 minutes before slicing. Serve hot, preferably on someone’s bedroom floor with your shoes off.

Nutrition (per serving)

Mac and Cheese Pizza — The Prom Night Pizza We Ate on Jada’s Floor