I saw this on a tv show a while ago but please don’t ask me which one haha. If you love regular mac n cheese you are in for a real treat with this recipe. You probably don’t need to salt the water as the there is already plenty of salt in all the cheese. If you like a little spice in your meals add some chili flakes but not too many.You can use bacon instead of pancetta if none is available or to save a little money. One lady emailed me and said she had chopped up 3 garlic cloves to bake within the dish, added 1 tblsp Dijon mustard and topped with bread crumbs and I must say that sounds like a wonderful addition.
Ingredients
- 10 rounds of pancetta, sliced into chunks or you can use bacon.
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 medium onion, minced
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 3 C milk (low fat was what I used, though this is NOT a light & healthy eat)
- 1 lb tricolor rotini
- 1 C freshly grated gruyere
- 1/4 cup freshly grated asiago cheese
- 1/4 cup freshly grated fontina cheese
- 1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
- 1/4 cup freshly grated mozarella cheese
- ground black pepper
- chopped fresh parsley
Directions
- Cook the rotini pasta in salted boiling water.
- With 2 T of olive oil in a sauce pan, start rendering the pancetta slices until golden and almost crisp.
- Take out the crispy pancetta from the pan and drain off excess oil and retain at least 3 T of oil in the pan.
- Now, start with the blonde roux. Melt in 3 butter. Saute the garlic and onion.
- Add 3 heaping T flour and whisk vigorously until well combined and the raw flour taste cooks off.
- Add the milk and continously whisk until the sauce thickens.
- When the sauce becomes too thick, add more milk or pasta sauce to thin it out.
- Add back the crispy pancetta and the cheeses.
- Lower down the heat and continously stir the sauce.
- Add a few pinches of ground black pepper. Let simmer for a couple of mins.
- Take the pan off the heat and quickly toss the rotini with the sauce.
- Sprinkle with a handful of chopped fresh parsley. Enjoy