I don't have a hard and fast recipe--it depends on if I have enough of all of the ingredients; I always make it to accomodate the ingredient I have the least of.

I usually use 2 cups dry elbow macaroni to make about 6 cups cooked. I usually add some salt and a little olive oil to the water. I don't know if it helps, but it makes me feel good.

Make a MEDIUM white sauce, about two cups worth. Look in your recipe books, everyone will have it. This may be a little too much, but better too much than too little.

I use soy milk and soy cheese and it comes out just fine. I don't add salt to this dish because there's plenty of salt in the cheese.

Once the white sauce is made, I stir in (one at a time) slices of various flavors of cheese--usually predominately cheddar, but also parmesian, mozarella, provalone, to give it a complex flavor and some zingy sharpneess. I usually add a lot--perhaps 8-10 slices for this batch. Mix and match your flavors according to your own taste.

Prior to starting the sauce I will have taken two or three Italian sausage links (sweet, not hot) and peeled the casing from them then dropped bits of the ground meat into a skillet and cooked up the crumbled sausage. Drain it. Once the white sauce is ready, add the Italian sausage and mix it a little, then pour this over the macaroni that has been drained and is back in a pan on the stove. Heat it a little longer, on low so you don't scorch it. We eat it probably about 3-5 minutes after the sauce is poured over the macaroni.

This is already plenty fattening, so I usually stop at this point, we load our plates and inhale it. If you want the crispy crumbs on top, then put this macaroni mix into a baking dish, and heat the oven to about 350 tops. You will have taken some melted margarine in a skillet and mixed in a bunch of bread crumbs, coating all of the crumbs, which are then spread over the top of the macaroni and baked until the crumbs are toasted crispy.

SRS