This isn’t a recipe. This is a cheese-delivery system for when you just want some mother-frakkin’ cheese because life is being life and the only thing that will fix it is cheese. Read on to learn how to make one of my staples.
I started making this because I love mac and cheese but find homemade, not-from-the-box mac and cheese to be just too much work on a weeknight. Even the least culinary of you could make this. You’ll need:
- Pasta enough for one – I like linguini because there is something about the way it holds the cheese that I love, but you could use anything you have.
- A bag of shredded cheese. I like the Mexican blend. If you are feeling gourmet, you could buy some amazing cheddar and shred that.
- A pat of butter. I’ve been buying the expensive European butter lately, and it is better.
To make:
- Boil some water. Toss some salt in once it’s come to the boil. Put pasta in the water and boil until al dente.
- While the pasta is cooking, put a pat of butter and a handful of shredded cheese into a bowl. I probably end up with about 1/2 a cup of cheese, but it’s all done by feel and how much cheese I want.
- Once the pasta is done, dump it out into a colander, reserving a couple spoonfuls of the cooking water. DO NOT RINSE IT. You want all of that starchy goodness to stay on the pasta because it acts like velcro (Alton Brown told me this).
- Put the pasta and the couple spoonfuls of cooking liquid in the bowl. Mix with the cheese. It should get all melty and buttery, but if it needs some help, pop it in the microwave for about 20 seconds.
- Eat.
14 replies on “Cheesy Pasta”
cool idea. Â Alton Brown totally makes me love him.
I didn’t see this article ’til this morning and figured i really couldn’t get away with cheesy pasta for breakfast but now it’s lunchtime, i’m about to enjoy a lovely bowl of cheesy pasty (with addition of a little cream and mustard) while watching Beauty and The Beast with Juniper Junior who’s not well. So here’s a yummy and comfortable afternoon, thank you!!
Oh, cheese (I’m still on my way of learning to eat pasta, eighteen years behind everyone else).
Mmmmm, cheeeeese.
I really like adding pecorino to my pasta, when I have the money for it (damn expensive but tasty fancy cheese!). And some black pepper.
This will be lunch tomorrow. The more cheese delivery systems in my life, the better.
I edited this post the other day, and then totally made it for dinner because I was too lazy to make my usual roux-based mac and cheese. Totally worth it.
So…this is going in my tummy ASAP.
Lovely! I think I may make some!
Oooh. I often make cheesy rice (cook some brown rice in vegetable broth, then sprinkle with shredded cheese of choice and pop in the microwave if it needs some additional melty-ness), but I’ll have to try it with pasta now!
oohh, cheesy rice is a good idea. Cheesy anything is a good idea.
I am so freaking hungry right now. I want this in my FACE. Mmmmmm… cheese….
You can do it! It’s not that hard!
I basically have only pasta, cheese, and eggs tonight, so your recipe makes me feel like I can actually have dinner. Thanks! :)
woo-hoo!