Baked Mac & Cheese with White Truffles & Mushrooms + GIVEAWAY!

My son loves Mac & Cheese and every Thanksgiving it has to be at the table.  Not just any Mac & Cheese though, something extraordinary!  For years now he’s been bringing in Flemings Mac & Cheese.  It has a smokey flavor and while I have their recipe, he insists on ordering it so I have one less thing to do in the kitchen.  Although, I think he’s afraid mine may not taste the same as theirs. That’s fine – whatever makes my family happy! 

This year I thought I’d start thinking ahead and prepare various mac & cheese recipes to see if any of them could take the place of Flemings.  A bowl of the stuff runs $50 – for noodles, cheese and cream. Crazy, but he loves it.

The grocery store I frequent had these vacuum packed cans of White Truffles and Porcini Mushrooms.  One of the chefs there told me the company Urbani Truffles has a to “die for” recipe for Mac & Cheese that she shared with me.  I purchased the can and have had it sitting in my pantry for months, and spotted it while searching for my Caribbean dinner.

I decided to pull out that recipe and give it a go this week to see how it tasted.

If you love truffles you’ll love this.  However, even though I followed the recipe to a “T” it was written with American (Imperial) measurements.  So when it called for 2 cups of shredded cheese – depending on the softness, size grate of the cheese, and how you pack it, could make a HUGE difference on the outcome of this dish.

The recipe calls for a total of 5 1/4 cups of cheese.  I’d say that should be gooey enough, not to mention a heart attack waiting to happen!  However, even though the flavor was scrumptious it didn’t seem cheesy enough.  I’m certain had I weighed out the ingredients ( European Metrics) this dish would have been spot on, a ooey and gooey mac & cheese.

I firmly believe that it’s inevitable before the U.S. switches over to European metric conversions.  As challenging as it will be to learn, cooking will be so much easier if the standards for measurements become global.  For instance:  A  recipe that calls for a large onion is left to interpretation, however, if it’s weighed out, there’s no room for guessing.  The same goes for shredded cheeses,  or a pitch of this and that, etc.

From this day forward I’m going to attempt to start posting both American (Imperial) measurements and European Metrics in the recipes on my blog posts.  Hopefully, in the near future the world will have a universal system for measuring ingredients.  Wouldn’t that be great?

In an effort to help you get started as well, I’m giving away the Salter Aquatronic Electronic Scale – the same scale I use.

Stop back for more on measurements in cooking in my next post.

In the meantime, enjoy this recipe for Baked Mac & Cheese with White Truffles & Mushrooms below, and don’t forget to enter my giveaway!
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Print Recipe

Baked Mac & Cheese with White Truffles & Mushrooms

Yield: 6-8 servings

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 35 minutes

Total Time: 1 hours 5 minutes

A luscious twist on Mac & Cheese!

Ingredients:

• 1 pound (454 grams) Elbow Macaroni
• 4 cups (946 ml) whole milk
• 4 Tbsp. (60 ml) unsalted butter
• 4 Tbsp. (60 ml) all-purpose flour
• 3 cups (710 ml) shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 2 cups (473 ml) shredded Fontina cheese
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 1 can Urbani White Truffle and Mushrooms
• 1/4 cup (60 ml) chopped flat-leaf parsley (optional)
• 1 cup (237 ml) panko breadcrumbs
• 1/2 cup (118 ml) grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese

 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit (190 degrees Celsius) and coat a large rectangular baking dish with non-stick spray.
2. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and add pasta.  Cook according to package directions. Drain and set aside.
3. In a small saucepan warm milk over low heat.
4. Melt butter in a medium saucepan and add flour all at once, whisking constantly for 1 minute.
5. Whisking constantly, slowly pour warm milk into butter/flour mixture.  Continue to whisk for approximately 2-3 minutes, until sauce is slightly thickened.
6. Add shredded cheeses into pot and stir until melted.  Add 1 can of White Truffle & Mushrooms. Season with salt and pepper.
7. Add reserved pasta and parsley into cheese sauce and stir until well combined.
8. Pour pasta into greased baking dish, sprinkle with Panko breadcrumbs and grated Parmesan cheese, and bake for approximately 30-35 minutes, until golden brown.

Enjoy!!!

 

Urbani Truffles