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The Ultimate Mac 'n' Cheese by Antonio Romano

FDL
By
Fine Dining Lovers
Editorial Staff
Difficulty
Intermediate
Total Time
40MIN

Ingredients

Butter: 60 g

All purpose flour: 60 g

Buttermilk farmhouse: 75 g

Gorgonzola cheese D.O.P.: 150 g

Taleggio cheese D.O.P.: 150 g

Parmigiano Reggiano 36 months: 210 g

Hazelnut flour: to taste

Macaroni pasta: 500 g, or other short pasta

Salt

Fresh Italian black summer truffle: 50 g

Black pepper

Chives: 50 g

Piedmont hazelnut I.G.P.: 20 g

Antonio Romano shares his recipe for the ultimate comfort food dish: macaroni and cheese. He chose the popular dish, not only because of its history and global notoriety, but also because he feels it has lost some of its personality in recent years.

Romano wants to give some value back to the dish, taking care and pride in selecting quality ingredients, like the all-important Italian cheeses he's chosen to pump up the flavour. Overall, it's a departure from the all-too-familiar bland and commercialised mac 'n' cheese ready meal.

The chef asks us to stop and think for a second, and re-evaluate our relationship with readily available junk food. He encourages us to dedicate a moment or two to eating healthily: "30 seconds of your time to remember to make eco-sustainable choices."

Join Romano in making his ultimate mac 'n’ cheese, full of flavour and personality, in the recipe below.

01.

Preheat the oven to160°.

In a thermomix jug, drop the butter, the buttermilk and flour, and cook for 20 min at 90° on speed 2. 

Chef tips: if you don’t have a thermomix, make a roux with butter and flour, add the buttermilk and the cheese, and cook until thick.

thermomix butter and flour
02.

Add salt and pepper.

Add in the thermomix the chopped taleggio, gorgonzola and parmigiano, and blitz for 15 sec on speed 8.

Sauce should be nice and thick. 

Thermomix taleggio gorgonzola
03.

In the meantime, cook the pasta in boiling and salted water. 

Cooking pasta
04.

The pasta must be al dente. Drizzle pasta with olive oil and stir to coat it. Set aside to cool. 

cooked pasta
05.

Combine the cheese sauce and pasta. 

pasta mixed cheese
06.

Add chopped chives to the mix, and 40 gr of the truffle, chopped, into brunoise butter and flour.

 

truffle and maccheroni cheese
07.

Fill the mould with some cheese sauce and hazelnut flour and bake in the pre-heated oven for 10 min.

Take out of the oven, put the hazelnuts on top and the extra grated parmigiano, and cook for 10 more minutes. 

Baking maccheroni in oven
08.

Grate the rest of the truffle on top. 

Serving the dish
09.

The ultimate mac 'n' cheese is ready to be served. 

The ultimate mac n cheese Antonio Romano

Chef Antonio Romano won the Fine Dining Lovers Food for Thought Award for Italy and South East Europe Region.

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