Blue Cheese Mac and Cheese

🤍 Recipe Highlights

I have summarised everything that you will come to know and love (LOVE ❤) about this mac and cheese with blue cheese recipe in the points below:

• Comfort food: we have al dente pasta covered in a creamy cheese sauce with blue cheese in amongst it. Does life get any better than this 😂👍.
• Simple ingredients: whilst not everyday ingredients (imagine if blue cheese was!) each of the ingredients needed to make the recipe are simple, year round available and can easily be sought from your local grocery store.
• Quick and easy: any recipe that takes less than 15 minutes from start to finish is a winner in my book. For nights when you want to cook but don't want to be cooking for hours, this is the recipe to turn to.
• Vegetarian: it can be nice to have some meatless nights where dinner is still full of flavor but a little less meaty. This vegetarian pasta recipe is perfect for nights when you don't want beef, chicken or pork on the plate.
• Budget friendly: this is a cost effective recipe that won't break the bank. It is better than getting take out and taking all of your wallet contents out at the same time!
• Versatile: whip this up as a meal in one to indulge in. Cheese lovers, I know you will hear me on this point 😉👍. Or make it as a cheesy pasta side to meaty mains when you want pasta to play second fiddle.

🥗 Ingredients

The photo below is to show you everything you need to make the recipe. Please refer to the printable recipe card for specific ingredient measurements as well as detailed instructions.

As you can see the recipe calls for:

• Butter: a creamy French unsalted butter will be perfect. We don't want to use salted butter as we add salt as a separate ingredient when making the macaroni sauce.
• Salt and pepper: we use salt and a little bit of black pepper when making the blue cheese sauce. These get added to the melted butter as we begin to build the flavor combination.
• Garlic: chunky minced garlic or 2-3 fresh garlic cloves that you finely chop will be perfect.
• Chives: we add 2 teaspoons of dried chives to the recipe as they add pops of colour and onion flavor.
• White white vinegar: this is a lively ingredient that smells amazing and brings a unique lift to sauce recipes.
• Dried onion: the onion helps to give us an extra depth of flavor in the sauce. This is dried onion flakes that you will find in the herbs and spices section of the supermarket.
• Blue cheese: it wouldn't be blue cheese mac and cheese without this stinky unique and super delicious cheese with bold mold stripes through it.
• Cream: the cream helps us to create the creamy cheesy sauce that we pair with the macaroni.
• Mozzarella cheese: soft and stringy. This is a cheese that is popular in pasta and pizza recipes. It doesn't however, have a bold or strong flavor about it which is why when it is paired with the blue cheese and parmesan cheese we are onto a winning combination 😉👍.
• Macaroni: budget friendly and easy to cook this popular pasta works across a wide variety of recipes.

🧀 Garnish Ingredients

• Parmesan cheese: freshly grated using a microplane zester is best. Then it will be soft and melt easily over the top of the hot pasta.
• Basil leaves: fresh bright green fragrant basil leaves that have been pulled from the stems and the stems discarded are what we are looking for. These add pops of colour to an otherwise plain looking pasta recipe.
• Black pepper: using black pepper over the top of the dish when ready to serve is a great way to season and add an extra flavor to the garnishes listed above.

Tasty Tip: I like to provide you with a number of substitutions and variations giving you an array of options when making the recipe. If in doubt of any of the above ingredients, or wanting alternatives, read this section (further below) before jumping into the instructions on how to make the recipe which are coming next 😉👌.

🍳 Instructions

Here are the step by step instructions to make the recipe. We start by making the sauce.

• Melt butter on high heat (Photo 1)
• Add the garlic, onion, chives, salt and pepper (Photo 2)
• Add the white wine vinegar (Photo 3)
• Add the cream (Photo 4)

👩‍🍳 How to Make Blue Cheese Mac And Cheese

We start the recipe by making the blue cheese sauce. To do so place a large frying pan onto the stove top and turn the heat to high. Then add the butter and let it melt.

Once melted, add the garlic, onion, chives, salt, pepper and give them a stir to combine and let sizzle for a minute.

Next add the white wine vinegar to the pan and then pour in the cream. You can see me doing this in the photo above.

• Add the blue cheese and mozzarella (Photo 5)
• Reduce heat to low and stir till until melted (Photo 6)
• Add the drained macaroni to the sauce (Photo 7)
• Allow to heat and then garnish (Photo 8)

Next we want to add both the blue cheese and mozzarella to the sauce and reduce the heat, stirring to combine as the cheese melts.

Next read and follow the instructions on the macaroni to cook it in a sauce pan of boiling salted water. Test a piece and when it is al dente (a little bit chewy), remove from the heat and drain into a colander. Then discard the pasta water.

Once done, add the cooked, drained macaroni to the sauce and stir to combine. Then turn the heat up and allow the pasta and sauce to heat through.

When ready garnish the dish liberally with the trio of parmesan cheese, black pepper and basil leaves.

🍽 Serving Suggestions

Up to you if you want to whip this up and serve it for the fam as is in bowls for an easy dinner.

I also know that you might be wanting this for a side to portion and pair with mains. In which case, the BBQ Lamb Ribs, Beef Ribs or Chicken Ribs are good choices.

For a cheesy garlic bread side, try the Tortilla Garlic Bread, Ciabatta Garlic Bread or the Garlic Pizza Bread.

For a light salad side try the Cherry Tomato Caprese Salad, Healthy Panzanella Salad or the Fresh Herb Salad.

👍 How to Guide

How to Store

Store leftover pasta in a sealed, airtight container in the fridge for 2-3 days. It is best reheated before being consumed.

How to Freeze

I don't recommend freezing leftovers of this dish or using it for meal prep to have portions of it in the freezer. Creamy or cheesy sauces return mixed results when frozen so I would simply heat and eat or consume leftovers over the next couple of days.

How to Reheat

Add leftover mac and cheese to a bowl and drizzle in a little bit of milk, then cover the pasta with cling film and heat on high for 1 to 3 minutes until heated through.

Once hot use a spoon to stir as the milk will help to give the sauce a little more juiciness again.

😉 Substitutions and Variations

Here are my sub ins and outs that you might be thinking about as you read the post and I will tell you if I think they will work or why they won't:

• You can omit the dried chives if you don't want a herb in the pasta as it cooks.
• The cheese indicated is parmesan cheese. You can also use the equivalent amount of pecorino romano cheese if you prefer it.
• I use fresh basil leaves to garnish the dish for serving. You can also use finely chopped fresh parsley as an alternative.
• You can try the dish with other pasta types. Some good choices are penne, rigatoni or fusilli.
• In almost all of my pasta recipes I reserve some of the starchy pasta water and use it in the pasta sauce. However, when testing this recipe I found that doing so made the sauce too watery. Hence why I don't use it. If however, you want to thin the cream sauce slightly you can add a splash of this water. Simply scoop it out before you drain the macaroni.

💡 Tasty Tips

Here are my top tips and tricks that I want to share with you so that you master the recipe from the get go:

• We want to use high heat to melt the butter and fry off the garlic, chives and onion, but we want to turn this down to medium-low heat when adding the cheese. Once the pasta and sauce has been combined you can turn the heat up again to allow the dish to heat through.
• If blue cheese is your thing, you might like to try the Gorgonzola Sauce, Pasta Alla Gorgonzola or the Basil Artichoke Pizza.

🤓 Frequently Asked Questions

What is Mac and Cheese?

Mac and Cheese is the ultimate comfort food. It involves cooking macaroni pasta until al dente, then making a creamy cheese sauce to pour over and stir through it.

What does Blue Cheese taste like?

Blue cheese has a distinct bold taste that is complemented by the soft pale cream cheese. It has a strong aroma and unique creamy texture with pale blue lines through it.

What is the best type of pasta to use?

There is no doubt that macaroni is the best type of pasta for mac and cheese. This is because it is cheap to purchase, quick to cook and is the ultimate pasta to smother with a thick cheese sauce.

😍 More Easy Dinner Recipes

If you have lots of ideas to turn to then dinner will never be old boring or same same. Here are some recipes to keep your dinners interesting:

• Polenta Al Forno
• Rigatoni Gorgonzola
• Thai Minced Pork
• Chorizo Pasta Bake
• Spaghetti Gorgonzola
• Prawn Pizza
• Chorizo and Prawn Linguine
• Chicken Yaki Udon

It is time to get our blue cheese on my friend. You can also find all of my pasta recipes and dinner recipes in the one spot.

Adrianne

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