Macaroni and cheese has become a controversial culinary topic.

How could Americans become so passionately involved or obsessively concerned with the simple ingredients of elbows, cheese and milk? Because it's all about an extremely pleasant and potentially habit-forming winter eating experience that most of us find comforting: macaroni and cheese.

When Julia Moskin authored an article in the The New York Times (Jan. 4, 2006, edition) about her search for perfect macaroni and cheese, she accompanied the article with recipes for Crusty Macaroni and Cheese and Creamy Macaroni and Cheese. With completely satisfying adjectives like these, Julia's recipes went to the top of the "try soon" pile.

Before I had a chance to get into the kitchen with elbows, Sara Dickerman, a food writer and chef in Seattle, wrote a response to the Times recipe in the online magazine Slate. She explains that something did not seem quite right to her about the "Crusty" version and, after testing, Ms. Dickerman concluded that tossing the macaroni with shredded cheese and adding a scant amount of milk resulted in a crispy, chewy "leathery" dish.

Has it ever bothered anyone else that if this dish is called macaroni and cheese, it should be made with shredded cheese, NOT cheese sauce? Not me.

Curiosity led me to retrieve my own macaroni and cheese file. Besides the common descriptors of creamy and crusty, I found triple cheese and four cheese recipes, Grandma's and Mom's, old-fashioned and lite, Italian style and Tuscan, country sausage and macaroni with spiced beef and tomato sauce, even Velveeta Cheeseburger Mac. Ingredient variations included cottage cheese, eggs, whole milk, lite milks and evaporated milk for the milk part; cheese choices ranged from Velveeta to cheddar to Parmesan to Swiss and Gruyere to mozzarella, ricotta and combinations of all.

I decided to create Olympic Macaroni and Cheese. Vegetable additions were in order, and so were Italian cheeses (five). I aimed for a crusty top and a moist bottom. I did not use elbows. Testers had seconds.

Olympic Macaroni and Cheese

Ingredients:

1/2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

8 ounces sliced mushrooms

1 clove garlic, minced

3/4 pound Italian sausage. casings removed

1/2 cup red wine (serve the rest with dinner)

1 1/2 cups petit diced tomatoes, thoroughly drained

3 tablespoons butter

1 medium onion, finely diced

3 tablespoons flour

3 1/2 cups milk

Pinch cayenne pepper

1 cup Italian fontina cheese, shredded

1 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded

1 cup provolone cheese, shredded

1/2 cup Gorgonzola cheese, crumbled

1 pound gemelli pasta

1/2 cup bread crumbs

3 tablespoons Parmesan cheese

3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley

2 tablespoons melted butter

Preparation:

Spray an attractive ovenproof casserole. Heat olive oil on medium high heat. Saute mushrooms until browned. Add garlic. Saute another minute. Remove from pan. Add to casserole.

In the same pan, brown Italian sausage. Pour in wine. Cover. Turn sausage over occasionally until all sides are flavored with the wine. Simmer over low heat until done, about 15 minutes. Drain, cool, slice and add to mushrooms.

To make the cheese sauce, melt 3 tablespoons butter in saucepan. Stir in onions, then flour. Slowly whisk in milk and cayenne. Stir until slightly thickened, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in cheeses, one at a time, placing back on the heat as needed to melt cheeses.

Meanwhile, boil salted water and cook pasta al dente. Drain. Add cheese sauce to pasta, then combine with tomatoes, then with mushrooms and sausage in casserole.

For the topping, stir together breadcrumbs, cheese and parsley. Sprinkle over casserole. Drizzle with melted butter. Bake in preheated 375-degree oven about 20 minutes.

Pat Ernst Dugan is a private chef, educator and food/recipe writer. E-mail her at foodlyyours@aol.com or send comments and questions to be forwarded to: Foodly Yours, Star-Gazette, Attn: Features Department, 201 Baldwin St., P.O. Box 285, Elmira, NY 14902.