Not Your Ordinary Mac-n-Cheese
Cheese - my favorite food in the world. Cheese makes everything better! I love cooking with it, eating it plain, melting it over chips, or experimenting with tasting different cheeses with good wine. I love how the flavors change after taking taking a sip of wine - and I love how the wine feels and tastes after the cheese.
I've been buying and trying different types of cheese lately and decided to mix them all together tonight in a fancier version of my homemade mac-n-cheese. Fresh Gruyere, pecorino-romano, Parmesan, mozzarella, cheddar, and asiago along with some black truffle oil took this usually ordinary dish to another level.
Here is what I used -
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 1 clove of garlic, minced (I'll use 2 cloves next time)
- 3 tsp butter
- 1 cup of milk
- 8 oz elbow noodles
- 1 tsp flour
- About ½ c each of shredded cheeses: Gruyere, asiago, pecorino-romano, cheddar, Parmesan
- ½ c breadcrumbs. I mixed Italian breadcrumbs with some plain. It would be good with Panko (Japanese breadcrumbs, too
- A few dashes each of salt, freshly ground black pepper, and red pepper flakes
- Black truffle oil
While cooking the macaroni, I melted the butter in pan and then added the onion, garlic, and red pepper flakes. I added some flour and stirred to make a roux, and then added the milk and just a touch of cream. After it started to bubble, I added the cheeses, reserving just a little bit for a topping. The salt and pepper went in and then I added the cooked noodles. Once in the baking dish, I topped it with the rest of the cheese and the breadcrumbs. Here is the best part... I drizzled the top with some black truffle oil. It baked covered on 400 for about 15 min, and then I uncovered it and turned on the broiler for just a minute.
That looks and sounds wonderful! Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteLooks wonderful! And black truffle oil, you're such a foodie! ;)
ReplyDeleteWhat the heck is black truffle oil?!?! :)
ReplyDeleteHoly cow. I'd love to try to work some dry white wine into this. Gourmet mac n cheese is quite possibly the best invention ever.
ReplyDeleteWhat a cute idea MaryEllen! I love the blog!!!! I had one but closed it down for now. Can't wait to see more yummy recipes!
ReplyDeleteKaren
Your cheese combination plus the addition of truffle oil sounds amazing!
ReplyDelete