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.

Heavenly! The cheeses blended together perfectly, and the black truffle oil gave it a nice, earthy flavor. This turned out to be a very "grown-up" mac-n-cheese. I think I need to treat myself to seconds tonight!