My love of truffles began in Florence Italy where they have such an abundance that they put it on pasta with reckless abandon. This white truffle gruyère mac and cheese with bacon recipe will be an absolute hit at your dinner table. I love eating it with a nice juicy steak. The crispy bacon brings the entire dish together quite nicely.
Start by cooking the bacon in the oven. Oven bacon is less greasy and in my opinion, tastes a heck of a lot better. This works especially well in recipes where you just want to add crispy bits of chopped bacon and you do not want the grease to overpower some of the other flavors.
A big key to this recipe is the bechamel sauce. Be sure to reserve some of the pasta water so that you can add it to the sauce in order to have a creamy liquid base. The liquid base will be a little different than your traditional macaroni in cheese that’s just cheesy coated macaroni. However, when you scoop out a forkful of the macaroni you will be able to dip it into the sauce which taste freaking phenomenal!
You will finish the recipe off by broiling some panko bread crumbs onto the top of the macaroni. Also reserve some bacon bits so you can sprinkle them on top at the very end in order to make the dish even more attractive.
This one is a keeper, trust me. Live to Eat!
- 1 Pound Pasta (your choice, I used fusilli pasta).
- 4 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter
- 4 Tablespoons Flour
- 2 Cups Milk
- 1 Teaspoon Salt
- ¼ Teaspoon Freshly Grated Nutmeg
- 1 Tablespoon White Truffle Oil
- 1½ Cups Gruyère Cheese
- 1½ Cups White Cheddar Cheese
- 10 Bacon Strips
- Panko Bread Crumbs
- Place bacon on a foil covered bacon sheet and place in a cold oven.
- Bake bacon at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.
- Remove bacon, chop finely and set aside.
- Boil a pot of heavily salted water.
- In a small pot melt the flour and butter and mix together until it turns into a slightly browned paste (approximately 2 minutes).
- Slowly whisk in the milk and continue to heat for 5-8 minutes until the sauce thickens to a gravy.
- Add the salt, nutmeg and truffle oil. Mix together.
- Add the bacon and mix together (set aside some for decoration).
- Add the Gruyère and white cheddar cheese, mix together and continue to heat until everything melts together.
- Boil pasta per boxes instructions and drain. Set aside some of the pasta water before draining.
- Add pasta to cheese bechamel sauce and mix together well.
- Add about ¼ cup of the pasta water to the macaroni and cheese to thin out the sauce which should be very thick at this point.
- Place macaroni and cheese in a small casserole dish and lightly top with panko bread crumbs.
- Broil for 3-5 minutes until the bread crumbs brown.
- Finish by crumbling some bacon on top of the dish.
2 Comments. Leave new
Best Mac and Cheese Ever-the bacon makes it!
Bacon makes everything Simi!