Cheese Lover’s Fall Macaroni and Cheese

We are making a pumpkin mac and cheese and it's going to be such a fantastic addition to your fall repertoire and it would be a really great dish to add on your friendsgiving or your thanksgiving table and before you start running because you know I don't love pumpkin and everything I have to you have to trust me when I tell you this is delicious it doesn't taste weird it adds a subtle sort of sweetness to the mac and cheese it's so delicious you will love it I've got some butter in there to it I'm adding some shallots finely diced shallots I'm also going to add a little bit of garlic for flavor. You guys know I didn't grow up eating pumpkin in a sweet way when I was growing up there was no such thing as pumpkin pie in Italy there was no such thing as Thanksgiving in Italy so we actually eat pumpkin all year long and we mainly eat it in savory ways. My nonna loves to pickle it and marinate it I've been eating it in like a it's a pasta dish basically the recipe is in my new book by the way I've been eating it like that my entire life so I'm used to pumpkin in a savory way and this I feel like just adds a level of sort of depth and sweetness to an otherwise just plain mac and cheese and I think it just gives a really nice like I said fall flair to a classic. I've got boiling water I'm going to add my pasta I'm using medium sized shells I like the texture but you can really use any that you like add that right in this is deeply cheesy and it's wonderful and delicious I've got my oven preheated to 375 and everything is pretty much rocking and rolling I've got the pasta going the shallots are almost there I'm going to grab some butter so that we can get the base going for the roux adding some flour that's just going to be the base to your bechamel which is just like a cream sauce you want to make sure that you cook the flour out for a few seconds you no longer want to see raw bits of flour anywhere that's how you know you're ready to go and now I'm going to just go ahead and add a mixture of whole milk and heavy cream I've got both in here add that in I'm going to switch to a whisk and I'm just going to cook this while whisking pretty much constantly until this mixture thickens sauce has thickened beautifully I'm going to lower that all the way down I'm using some dry sage only because I accidentally and I'm so mad at myself I accidentally threw away my brand new pack of sage I was cleaning up after the grocery store thought I put it in my veggie drawer not there so that tells me in the frenzy of moving all the bags it somehow got discarded and I'm very upset about it but it's okay to that I'm going to go ahead and add my pumpkin puree now I am using canned pumpkin puree a it's cheap cheerful and delicious very convenient we love that and b it's something that you can keep on hand for a really long time but you can also make this with like fresh pumpkin roast it and puree it a butternut squash an acorn squash whatever just roast it and then puree it um you can use any of those I'm going to go ahead and very generously salt and pepper and then I'm going to add the tiniest little bit of nutmeg which I think is always needed in a cream sauce but like I'm talking a tiny amount to highlight that bechamel but we're not trying to turn this into you know pumpkin pie spice territory I'm going to use the spoon to taste my sauce that is sensational needs a bit more salt that tastes so good I could honestly just add my cheeses and like leave it as is turning the heat off I'm going to go ahead and add some of my cheeses in I've got a combination of parm shredded mozz the low moisture kind white cheddar and gruyere okay please make sure you are shredding your own cheeses otherwise you are going to end up with a split sauce I'm going to use about half of these okay whisk it in get that cheese sauce I also drained my pasta I like to put a little bit of the cheese sauce on the bottom I like my mac and cheese very cheesy okay and I don't like it dry so if it looks a little heavy with sauce well I don't know what to tell you because that must mean that you like a dry mac guess who doesn't like a dry mac and cheese me drain my pasta add the rest of the cheese sauce in it is sensational you're going to have to trust me it is so good look at that it would be delicious like this as like a stovetop mac and cheese you know it would be but even more delicious this way I'm gonna put half of it down okay spread that around and the pasta is a little bit shy of even al dente because I want it to be perfectly cooked when you go to eat it add that on top like that the rest of your pasta and your sauce that is gorgeous now you could do one of two things you could even do a little more cheese on top which I know it sounds crazy but it would be delicious and put it in the oven I like a little bit of texture I'm a texture person so I'm gonna take some bread crumbs and a couple tablespoons of olive oil you could use melted butter whatever your heart desires I like to mix that together you don't have to like I said you could use melted butter if you wanted to but this just gives you such nice texture gorgeous this is gonna go in a hot oven for like 15-20 minutes it's just for the top to brown and get crispy and for that center section of cheese to melt then you wait you wait and see look at that look at that bubble action okay let's see you should probably not serve this piping hot I'm not gonna lie to you you should definitely not but then you wouldn't see this okay you wouldn't see that because you know how it's how it is I like to think I'm like your cooking fairy right I bring you the goods I can't make magic happen when a cream sauce cools down it starts to seize and it's no longer got that pull not that it's not absolutely delicious this should definitely cool down before you eat it but if I let it cool down then you don't get the visual and without the visual you can't taste it because I know you can't actually taste it but you kind of can with the right visual you get what I'm saying it's like that SMR thing like the right sound and the right visual makes you feel like you're there you know what I'm saying your mac and cheese ain't cheesy and it ain't pulling I don't want to hot obviously you just got to do it the gruyere is like nutty the topping is crunchy so it's giving you texture the sage plays perfectly with a nutmeg and the pumpkin just gives you a hint of fall a hint of sweetness you might not even know it's in there but it will elevate your fall mac and cheese don't even tell people that it's in there watch them say what is that why is it so good watch go to laurainthekitchen.com for the written recipe hope you enjoyed spending time with me and I will see you in the next one. Bye!