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Truffle Mac and Cheese Recipe:
This time of year, with heaps of golden leaves on the ground and the smell of damp, mushroomy autumn into winter, brings with it all kinds of culinary scents and flavours. For me, from late October through winter, I crave comfort foods like this easy truffled Mac and Cheese, baked in the oven, warming the whole of my kitchen study area. If I am making anything special in autumn, my mind tends to turn to truffles, along with red wine, warming spices and buttery dauphinoise. Earthy, aromatic and uniquely flavoured, truffles, when I can get hold of them, are one of my favourite additions to dishes like Mac and Cheese. While I don’t generally have fresh truffles in the house, I make something that is so close my own palate can’t tell the difference, using white truffle oil and good quality cheese. Occasionally I’ll have leftovers from a dinner party of a truffled goats cheese that I buy at Borough Market, but unsurprisingly it’s never enough without a dash of truffle oil.
The winter white truffle is sometimes called the ‘Alba or Piedmont Truffle’. It’s commonly found in the Piedmont region of Italy, where it hides, a few inches down in the earth, under the roots of hardwood trees like oak and chestnut. Specially trained dogs are now used to sniff them out. Historically, the truffle hunting was done by sows (female pigs), but apparently, the truffles smell like porcine pheremones – and the pigs had a habit of enthusiastically finding and then eating them! That leads me to wonder why they are so popular with humans – perhaps there is a similarity between pig and human pheremones? Whatever, in their natural state, white truffles are extremely expensive. Fifteen grams of winter white truffle will set you back £75. So, using white truffle oil if you are making a truffled mac and cheese is really not a bad idea!
I was thrilled to be sent a bottle of white truffle oil from Fine Food Specialist UK just as the weather started to get chilly this week. And, I decided to make up some Mac and Cheese so I could photograph and share the recipe with you.
Without further ado, here’s how to make a truffled Mac and Cheese.
Easy Recipe for Truffled Mac and Cheese using truffle oil
- 140 g Dried Pasta of your choice Macaroni if you like, I used Fusillata Casareccia, longer tubes of pasta
- 300 ml Milk
- 2 tbsp Cornflour You can use flour if you prefer, but cornflour is lighter and will blend more easily)
- 50 g Butter
- 150 g Mild cheese such as Comte, Gruyere, Jarlsberg or Monterey Jack I used leftover Comte and mild cheddar, with some scraps of leftover scraps of truffled goats cheese. This is a good way to use up oddments of cheese
- 4-5 drops White Truffle Oil
- 1 handful Parsley finely chopped
- Salt and Pepper to taste
Make up the pasta according to the packet mix, once cooked to al-dente (e.g. about a minute before the packet suggests it will be done) drain and put to one side. Heat the oven to 180C
Melt the butter in a heavy based pan
Stir through the cornflour or flour to make a roux and heat gently for a few seconds
Over a medium heat add the milk, little by little, stirring all the time.
Continue to stir until the mixture boils and thickens and all the lumps are gone. If the sauce is too thick add more milk until you have something the consistency of double cream
Grate all the cheese
Stir three-quarters of the grated cheese into the white sauce
Taste and season with salt and pepper. NB it is important to leave seasoning till this stage as the cheese can be salty!
Stir through all the pasta and add the truffle oil. Mix gently
Tip into an ovenproof casserole and top with the remaining cheese
Put uncovered in the oven at 180C and bake for 15 minutes or so until the top has a nice golden crust and the whole mixture is bubbling gently
Sprinkle with fresh parsley and serve piping hot
Recipe Video
A delicious and fragrant truffled mac and cheese recipe
What do I like best about this recipe? The addition of just a little truffle oil lifts it to something very special but you can make it your own by adding a few extras!
You could add scraps of ham or leftover chicken if you wanted to pimp it up further. It needs nothing more than a green salad to make the perfect winter supper. Or if you happen to be feeling totally indulgent, it makes a great side dish for a good steak!
Now, where’s this going? Well, I’m delighted that I’ve got a bottle of White Truffle Oil from Finefoodspecialist.co.uk to give away to one lucky London-Unattached reader. All you need to do is to complete the rafflecopter, remembering to answer the mandatory question – what would YOU use the white truffle oil for? Here’s another idea for me which is utterly delicious – wild mushrooms with soft boiled truffled quails eggs. I’m really looking forward to hearing what you come up with!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Oh and if you like the look of this recipe, why not pin it for later!
That looks gorgeous
I want to make this recipe. This recipe looks good.
This looks delicious
I would use it in a mushroom risotto yummy 💕
This sounds YUMMY
I love mac and cheese, but for some reason, it’s one of those things I never think to make. Well I’m not going to forget this recipe in a hurry.
On mac and cheese.
I use truffle oil on my spaghetti dishes
On pizzas, in pasta dishes and I am thinking on a mushroom omelette