Jamie's Mac 'n Cheese

Jamie's Mac 'n Cheese
From Cook with Jaimie

Prep time: 20 minutes (most of which is to boil the water for the penne)
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients:
400g/14 oz macaroni (any short pasta will do)
Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
1-2 tbsp butter
½ cup chopped fresh oregano leaves
3.5 oz/ 100g Parmesan cheese, freshly grated (I like it grated coarsely for this dish)
3.5 oz/ 100g fontina or taleggio cheese, roughly torn
3.5 oz/ 100g mascarpone cheese
Freshly grated nutmeg (Jamie suggests ¼ of a nutmeg)
Small ball of buffalo mozzarella (I used a couple of bocconcini balls instead)
More parmesan for serving.

Directions:
1. In a large pot, boil salted water for macaroni

2. Preheat the oven to 400°F/200°C.

3. Have all the ingredients ready, because it only takes a couple of minutes to assemble

4. Boil the pasta in salted water until a bit undercooked (remember you will be baking this dish once it’s assembled). This usually takes 5 minutes or so. Drain, reserving about 1 cup of cooking water, and set aside.

5. In the meantime in a large, heavy bottomed non-stick sauté pan, heat the butter until it foams and then sauté the oregano for a minute or two. The leaves will crisp up a bit. Add the cooked pasta and a little few spoonfuls of the cooking water plus the fontina, parmesan and mascarpone. Return to medium heat and toss around until most of the cheese has melted and “you have a lovely gooey mess” (Jamie’s words). I needed to add about ½ cup more of the cooking water to get that. Season with additional salt and pepper if you need to.

6. Transfer to an oven-proof dish, grate some nutmeg over the pasta, and rip the mozzarella or bocconcini and sprinkle with more parmesan.

7. Bake for about 10 minutes and then turn the broiler on for a minute or so to make the top crisp and golden.

Serve with a salad and some crusty bread.

Related links: Food and Drink Easy Cooking Recipes Pasta cheese