White Wine Macaroni and Cheese

We're having an early Thanksgiving celebration tomorrow at work and I thought I'd bring in some macaroni and cheese. It wouldn't be the usual recipe with cheddar and Gruyere, but a homemade stovetop kind.

I had already made a ton of changes before I got to what I did. It called for evaporated milk. I used whole. It wanted elbow macaroni. I used Fusili. It wanted sharp cheddar.I used some Vermont Extra Sharp White Cheddar, Mozzarella, Monterey Jack mix. Oh well. Throw in some Chuck Shaw Sauvignon and voila! It worked out!



This is roughly the recipe, and also how I would do it over again, as I am going to tomorrow for another potluck. Woooo!

Stove Top White Wine Mac n Cheese

1 lb Fusili Pasta or Elbow Macaroni or any pasta
2 cups Extra Sharp White Cheddar
2 cups Trader Joe's Swiss, Monterey Jack, Cheddar pre shredded mix (or the like)
4 eggs
2 cups whole milk
5 tblspns unsalted butter
2 tblspns all purpose flour
6 oz. white wine (like Sauvignon Blanc)
2 tspns nutmeg (try the freshly grounded stuff if you can!)
1 tspns kosher salt
1 tspns Freshly ground black pepper (or to taste)

Cook pasta as directed on package, but in some salt. Drain water.

In a medium/heavy pot, over medium heat melt butter. Add flour, stir. Add milk slowly, stir, stir, stir. Add eggs, cheese, nutmeg, black pepper and salt whisk and stir, until cheese is melted. Then add pasta and coat. Cook for about 3 more minutes. Add wine. You want the wine to mix in well with the pasta. If the consistency is not to your liking add more milk, wine or flour to your liking. (This is where the experimenting comes in).

Cook about 2-3 more minutes to prevent burning. Garnish with a smile and some crushed fresh parsley. You're done!

Ultimately, I have to say I think I liked the baked stuff more. The crunchy bread crumb top always steals the show. However, as a substitute, this was much faster, and the white wine is always memorable. Enjoy!

Addendum: This dish was well received today at work, so I feel better about it today than last night. Also, its just grown on me. Yeeeyay!