Pasta and cheese

Name: Pasta and cheese
Total time: 900 s
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 2 tbsp unsalted butter; 1 heap tbsp AP flour; 2 cups whole milk; 1 cup grated medium cheddar; 1/2 cup grated pecorino romano; 1/2 cup grated smoked gouda; 4 cups dried penne rigate noodles

Robert Gonzal @robert

Vancouver BC

This dish is basically mac and cheese, except for the fact I didn't notice ahead of time that we'd run out of macaroni noodles. Fortunately, a box of penne rigate made a more than reasonable substitute. For the cheese blend, pecorino romano provided a nice earthiness, smoked gouda brought, well, a hint of smokiness, and cheddar gave the tang and texture you expect from a mac and cheese sauce. All were whisked into a bechamel base, which provided additional creaminess and prevented the oily runoff you sometimes get when melting cheese. Needless to say, the final dish was a huge hit with my wife and daughter, both of whom are cheese aficionados. As for me, I'm not as big a fan of mac and cheese, but I still enjoyed it just fine, especially sprinkled with a little smoky paprika.

Robert Gonzal @robert

Saved

Ingredients

15 minutes

4 servings

2 tbspunsalted butter
1heap tbsp AP flour
2 cupswhole milk
1 cupgrated medium cheddar
1/2 cupgrated pecorino romano
1/2 cupgrated smoked gouda
4 cupsdried penne rigate noodles

Saved

Steps

15 minutes

1

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the flour and whisk for 3 minutes to cook the starchy flavour out of the flour.
2

Slowly pour half the milk into the saucepan. It'll seize, don't worry about it. Just keep whisking and it'll smooth out again. Once it does, whisk in the remaining milk. Keep cooking/whisking until the sauce thickens to the consistency of heavy cream, about 5 minutes. Don't take it much farther than that because the cheese will thicken it the rest of the way.
3

Sprinkle the cheese into the sauce a little at a time, whisking constantly to incorporate. Once all the cheese has been added, add a few grinds of freshly cracked black pepper.
4

Boil the pasta in a large pot of salted water per the package instructions. You can do this the same time you make the sauce. Drain the pasta well, then return it to its pot and pour in the sauce. Stir to combine, and serve hot.