Loretta Sebastiani

Loretta Sebastiani
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Macaroni with creamy sauce made with four kinds of cheese
( Maccheroni ai quattro formaggi )

Traditional Italian pasta recipe

difficulty: easy

time: preparation: 10 minutes
cooking: 25 minutes

calories: 544 (kCal)

Ingredients / Serves 4

  • 280 g (10 oz) short pasta (macaroni, penne ...)
  • 50 g (1 3/4 oz) Emmental cheese, cubed
  • 50 g (1 3/4 oz) Dutch cheese, cubed
  • 50 g (1 3/4 oz) mozzarella cheese, grated
  • 80 g (about 3 oz) grated Parmesan
  • 1 tablespoon dried parsley
  • 50 g (1 3/4 oz) unsalted butter
  • Salt
  • Pepper, if you like
Difficulty:
easy recipe
Time:
preparation: 10 minutes
cooking: 25 minutes
How many calories in a serving?
Calories: 544 (kcal) 28 % - 2277 (kJ)
Protein: 23.4 (g) 47 % GDA
Total fat: 26.7 (g) 39 % GDA
Total carbohydrate: 56.1 (g) 21 % GDA
Sugars: 3.7 (g) 5 % GDA

Download free PDF version (346 download).

Macaroni with four kinds of cheese is a traditional Italian recipe in which pasta is tossed with no tomato sauce.
Cheese sauce is a creamy sauce made melting three or four kinds of cheese at bain-marie.
It tastes fantastic but it's a recipe rich in calories and fat: be careful not to eat it often.
Here it is the recipe of four cheese macaroni or penne.

Cook the pasta you've chosen (macaroni, penne or another shape of short pasta) until al dente stage according to our instructions.
Prepare the sauce while you're cooking pasta.
Use a non-stick frying pan and put it in another pan in which you've added some water. This is the tecnique of bain-marie cooking. It's important to prepare this creamy sauce.
Melt the butter and then add Dutch and Emmenthal cheese and the half of Parmesan cheese. Stir and let all the ingredients melt together. Make this step few minutes before draining pasta. Remove the pan from bain-marie and then drain pasta very well.
Put the pasta into the pan together with parsley and mozzarella cheese. Let all the ingredients flavours on medium heat stirring accurately for a minute.
Serve the pasta hot sprinkled with the remaining Parmesan cheese and pepper.

Note

  • - The only difficulty is to amalgamate the mozzarella to the other cheese very well. We suggest you another way for the best result. Add grated mozzarella directly on the pasta when you've just switched off the gas. Cover the pan and wait one or two minutes before putting the pasta in the plates.
  • - You cal also use other kinds of cheese if you want. But remember every cheese must melt for the best results.
    Other suggestions may be: gorgonzola, Fontina, Asiago, Ricotta ... cheese.
  • - Some people use to dilute the sauce with some milk but it isn't in our habit. Somebody else is used to add single cream (light cream) but the recipe is already rich in calories and fat: it isn't necessary to add other ingredients.
  • - Use the short pasta you prefer (macaroni, penne, pipe ...). All kinds of short pasta is tasty with this kind of sauce.
  • - It isn't necessary to use four kinds of cheese. Use three or five kinds of cheese. Do you have any cheese left in the fridge? You can prepare this fantastic dish of pasta!
  • - If you search for this recipe in Internet you’ll be able to find millions of pages about cheesy white sauce by which to toss pasta. The recipes can be very different and the amount of pasta and cheese too!
    Be careful about the right amount of pasta and cheese. If you follow our instructions the nutrition facts are as you can see in our page but if you use 400g (14 oz) of pasta and 100 g (3 1/2 oz) of every kind of cheese the nutrition facts are these:
    energy: kcal 870 (kjoule 3639)
    protein: g 35.7
    total fat: g 47.1
    total carbohydrate: g 80.7
    sugars: g 5.8
    Somebody are used to add milk or light cream to the other ingredients in Italy but we haven’t this habit. According to our own taste the recipe is perfect in this way!

What's the right wine for " Macaroni with creamy sauce made with four kinds of cheese "?

Our suggestion is: Valtellina Superiore DOCG (red wine from Lombardy). Open the bottle some hours before serving. Serve the wine at 18-20°C (64-68°F)