I’m not sure if its just me, but I find that unique or gourmet mac and cheese recipes have been rising in popularity. I can see why. Pasta and cheese are a match made in comfort food heaven and there are so many ways to build off of this base.
My gourmet version includes cavatappi pasta, a creamy sauce of white cheddar and mozzarella, topped with caramelized onion, pear, walnuts and blue cheese. I LOVE fruit elements in savoury applications. If you like pineapple on your pizza, or cranberries in your salad, I highly recommend you try this one out.
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Recipe makes 4 servings
- 1/3 cup of unsalted butter (and 1 extra tbsp for later)
- 1/3 cup of all purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp of garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp salt (extra to taste)
- 1 pinch of ground black pepper
- 1 1/2 cup of milk
- 1/2 cup of heavy cream
- 1 1/2 cups of shredded white cheddar
- 1 1/2 cups of shredded mozzarella
- 4 cups of cavatappi pasta
- 2 pears, diced (I used d’anjou and bartlett)
- 1/2 cup of yellow onion, diced
- 1 spring of rosemary
- 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
- 1/4 cup blue cheese (I used Roquefort, but stilton, danbleu, or gorgonzola are also great)
- Melt 1/3 cup of butter in a pot on high heat. Once melted, add all purpose flour, salt, pepper and garlic powder. Stir for approx. 3 minutes
- Turn heat to medium and slowly stir milk and cream into the roux. Stir for approx. 3 minutes (make sure there are no lumps of flour)
- slowly add cheese (small handfuls at a time). Keep stirring until the cheese has melted. The mixture should be thick but still viscous.
- Cook pasta until al-dente, then drain.
- Mix cheese sauce into pasta. Stir until all pasta is coated.
- Preheat oven to 350F. Melt 1 tbsp butter in a pan on medium-high heat. Add onion, pear and sprig of rosemary. Saute for 15 minutes, until browned.
- Add a couple tablespoons of blue cheese and half of pear/onion mixture to cavatappi and cheese mixture. Mix and place in a baking dish. (If you don’t want as strong blue cheese flavour, leave it out of this step)
- Add chopped walnuts to remainder of pear/onion mixture, and saute on the stove for approx. 1 minute.
- Sprinkle desired amount of blue cheese and pear/onion/walnut mixture on top of pasta. Bake for approx. 10 minutes. Serve and enjoy:)
I remember a simpler time when the entire world beyond Mac and cheese was ketchup. Just ketchup. The road needed there. And there’s been many variations since but you just walzed on in and trashed the place with this concoction. Regardless of whether I ever make this, thank you for making sure all macaroni and cheeses I eat will feel inadequate compared to my imagination of what this must taste like.
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