Ready in under 30 minutes, this one pot mac and cheese recipe is comfort food at it's best
- 16 Ounces Dried Pasta I like Penne, see post for other shape options
- 1/4 Cup Unsalted butter sliced into 1/4" - 1/8" slices
- 2 Cups Heavy Cream or regular milk
- 3 Cups Shredded white cheddar I used Cabots Seriously Sharp Cheddar
- 1 teaspoon Dry mustard or Dijon
- 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon hot sauce or to your liking
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Boil water for pasta, once boiling add about a teaspoon of kosher salt, add pasta and cook according to box directions, usually for 10 minutes. We chose to use Penne here but any pasta shape will do.
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Turn off heat and drain noodles when ready, then return to the pot. Try to keep a little of the pasta cooking water in the pot, it makes the sauce creamier.
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Cut butter into ¼” pieces and drop in the noodles, stir to melt the butter.
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Add a handful of shredded cheese to the hot pasta and stir to melt. Keep adding cheese by handfuls until all of it has been added and melted. Make sure the butter and cheese are covered by hot noodles.
Slowly adding the cheese and keeping the butter and cheese in thin small bits will help the creaminess of the dish.
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Add mustard, salt and hot sauce, stir to combine. Add cold cream and stir thoroughly.
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If the sauce isn’t clinging to the pasta yet, then return pot to low heat and cook uncovered for about 5-10 minutes more until sauce has thickened.
When ready to serve pull the bottom noodles to the top and you’ll see a huge difference in the creaminess of the noodles.
-If you want the smoothest mac and cheese possible substitute half the cheddar for real American cheese. See post above for information on American cheese, the real stuff isn't so bad, it's the imitation that has given American cheese the bad rap. The reason I don't use it is I don't typically have American cheese on hand.
-Save about a 1/4" cup of the pasta water so that you can add it if the mac and cheese sits awhile before serving.