This recipe came from the Macaroni & Cheese cookbook, which is pretty hilarious because the only requirements are literally that the recipe contain macaroni AND cheese. So recipes like Truffled Timbales with Zucchini Pesto, Lemon-Scented Pasta Pudding and Tuna Noodle Casserole are in this book because they have… you guessed it… both cheese and macaroni! We’ll be trying out a couple more recipes, especially a couple of the baked versions.

This recipe is SUPER easy and SUPER quick. You can literally prep everything in the time it take for your pot was water to come to a boil.

Ingredients:

12 ounces smallish macaroni (elbows or pennette)
2 cloves chopped garlic (we minced 4 cloves)
1 shallot, chopped (we clearly used a red onion)
10-12 ounces shredded Gruyere, Emmenthal or Appenzeller (we used about 16 ounces total of all three!)
4 ounces of creme fraiche (we used heavy whipping cream)
A grating of nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste
2 – 3 tablespoons butter

Instructions:

Cook pasta in large pot of rapidly boiling, salted water until al dente
Drain, reserving about 1 cup of the cooking liquid
Return the hot pasta to the pot
Toss with the garlic, shallot, shredded cheese, cream, nutmeg, salt, pepper and butter
Stir all the ingredients together, until cheese melts
If the cheese doesn’t melt add 1/4 cup of the cooking liquid
If the cheese still doesn’t melt, turn the heat on low for a minute while stirring
Add more cooking liquid for a lighter sauce