Macaroni and Brie

My quest to further gentrify mac and cheese continues. I thought to myself, ‘what’s the Yuppiest cheese of them all,’ and came up with brie. Then, I went out and bought some brie to make this happen. This is a subtle, buttery version of mac and cheese. Turns out that melted brie makes for an awesome pasta sauce.

Ingredients:

4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced—Goodfellas style

2 bell peppers, chopped

1 8 oz. hunk of brie cheese inside the rind

8 oz. dried rotini (or whatever pasta you like)

1 C pasta cooking water, reserved

1 C kalamata olives, roughly chopped

½ C grated mozzarella

Salt and pepper

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F

2. Slice the brie rind in half. Combine the brie halves, the garlic and the bell peppers in a baking dish. Bake for 30 minutes

3. Meanwhile, cook your pasta al dente, drain it, return it to the pot, and stir in the olives and mozzarella until the mozzarella is melted.

4. When the timer is up, squeeze the brie out of the rinds and into the baking dish. Pour the contents of the baking dish (garlic, peppers, cheese) over the pasta. Stir to combine. 

5. Taste and adjust the salt and pepper. Use a lot of pepper.

6. Eat it while it’s hot. If I had Ritz Crackers, I’d crush a bunch up and top the mac and cheese with that.