The wife and I are on a diet and have been doing some frozen meals. I had a Mac and Cheese frozen meal with truffles and was surprised by the taste. I thought to myself this would be pretty awesome smoked. So I searched for a Truffle Sauce in the stores with no luck. Luckily on Twitter I was introduced to Truffletopia and I'd rather support small business anyways!
I decided to order and give it a go on making Smoked Porcini and White Truffle Cream Mac and Cheese! The product came well packaged and with a nice hand written note.
Where else do you get customer service like this? Please support small business where possible!
Anyways enough of the bone, on to the meat of the recipe!
If you read any of my other posts you will know I'm just an average Joe when it comes to pictures and such. Heavy whipping creme and milk is not shown here. That is also two blocks of the sharp white cheddar. Flour is needed as well and not pictured.
I've made smoked mac and cheese many times but since this was the first time making Truffle Mac and Cheese, I wanted to make sure I made it right. I was lucky to find a recipe already on Truffletopia. So I tweaked it some.
Boil the noodles of your choice. I used Ditalini by Barilla. Boil it till al dente, I went for 8 minutes.
While boiling the pasta you will want to make the roux using 6 tablespoons of butter and a 1/3 cup of flour mixed together slower till it becomes almost paste like.
My deli wasn't open to buy some fancy cheeses so I bought some blocks. The first time making this I couldn't find the cheese grater so I had to cube it. It works for smoked queso, so it must work for Mac and Cheese right? (Don't add the cheese at this stage)
I used two blocks of 8 ounce Tillamook Sharp White Cheddar and one block of Cracker Barrel Gouda.
The next time I made mac and cheese I found out we ditched the cheese grater for these nifty bowls with a cheese grater built into the lids! That was a lot of work but made it a lot easier to melt everything together! *Note* Shred the cheese before the cooking starts!
Once you get the roux mixed up to the right consistency slowly add in one cup of heavy creme and three cups of milk.
I then added 1 tsp of Badia Black Truffle and Sea Salt and 1 tsp of Badia Black Garlic Seasoning.
Then it's time to add the star of the dish the Porcini and White Truffle Cream. The original recipe calls for 1 tablespoon of the Black Truffle Sauce. The first time I made this the smoke over powered it and ended up adding an additional tablespoon during the cooking process. The second time I made it I added 2 tablespoons and it's the right balance of flavor and smoke.
Or buy from Wal-Mart here.
Once all that is mixed in, it's time to add in the cheese. I used one cup of the Parmesan cheese. Per the original recipe add one cup at a time. It will melt faster and be easier to get the consistency.
Once it was all mixed up I added in the noodles and removed it from the heat.
That's when you want to make the Panko mix. Melt 4 tablesoons of butter and mix in the 1.5 cups of Panko it will brown it up a bit. Then top it on the mac and cheese mixture it should look like the picture below.
When it's done it should look something like this. Nice and browned. When I had the wings on in the picture above I was smoking them hot and fast and the temp was about 350. You can smoke the mac and cheese for 30-40 minutes. Once it's browned at the top it should be good to go.
This one was cooked low and slow I had it at 250 for an hour or so. We made it for our 4th of July cook out with 20 or so people and there wasn't any left. Everyone loved it. We will be making this again for the holidays or any other special occasion.
Be sure to head over to Truffletopia to check out their amazing products!
I use the Kamado Joe Classic II and the Pit Barrel Cooker! Check out flavorflamebbq.com for more information on the Kamado Joe, accessories, fuel, meats and more! FFBBQ participates in some affiliate programs so by purchasing from links you are helping support the site! So far FFBBQ has made a few dollars! Thanks for helping to keep the flame going!