Say CHEEEEESE!

So last week you all saw my steak sandwich and how hearty it was. Well, part 2 of my lunch with Jesse is just as rich!

We made White Truffle Mac-n-Cheese!

Oh man I can go on and on about white truffle oil. And no, I don't mean chocolate truffles. If you don't like mushrooms I suggest you do not read this post. HaHa.

To further explain what it is, I did some research and came across some upsetting information. White Truffle oil is in fact not even infused with real truffles (rare fungi, sort of like a mushroom). I'm in shock! I understood the cost of the oil ($20 a bottle) when I believed it was truly infused by real truffles...now I am baffled. Read more about what the hell it's flavored with here. Can we really trust wikipedia though?

I used a recipe from the food network. Like many recipes I find, I adapted it and made it my own. :)

This is the recipe I used to start me off.

Here are my ingredients:

Like the recipe says I started off with butter, sauteed the onions and the garlic. Once it was slightly carmel colored I added the flour and whisked to make a blonde roux.

In a small pan on the side I sauteed mushrooms (shitake and baby bellas).

Right before whisking in the milk/ bringing it to a boil I threw in the sauteed mushrooms. (This is one of my additions to the recipe)

Ten minutes of whisking did NOT go by quickly and as the sauce thickened up I was so happy to have Jesse there to keep stirring!

Rather than following the recipe, we added our own amounts of cheese. The recipe only calls for 1/2 cup of parmesan. How can it be called mac-n-cheese with such a small amount of cheese? Preposterous! So we added half a cup of shredded parmesan and half a cup of shredded fontina!

We poured 1/4 of a cup of the white TRUFFLE oil, the sauce, and the cheese on top of the already cooked Cavatappi shaped pasta and stirred it well until every noodle was covered. It made such a cool and funny noise!

I put the mac-n-cheese (that we refused to taste until it was completely done) in a casserole dish. I saved some of the shredded cheese and added it to some of the store bought panko bread crumbs which I sprinkled on top. Then I slid it into the oven on a super high heat to crisp up the top layer of bread crumbs.

When I took it out it was bubbling and smelled amazing. I topped it with the fresh herbs!

Part 2 of our lunch was definitely my favorite. It was pleasantly rich, homey, cozy...everything you could want in a mac-n-cheese. Plus it made for GREAT leftovers!

We enjoyed our lunch outside since it was a gorgeous day!

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Next week sneak peak: more comfort foods by a surprise GUEST!