Buffalo Mac n’ Cheese

This is “buffalo” in two senses — I use buffalo mozzarella and buffalo sauce. I’ve always liked the combination of blue cheese and hot wings, so I decided to make a mac n’ cheese heavily studded with gorgonzola and bathed in the kicky goodness of homemade buffalo sauce, cooled by buffalo Mozzarella and cream cheese. I’m spoiled, since I live in Wiscosin, and I even found a Buffalo Jack cheese, which I also added to the pot. If you don’t have the luxury of a Woodman’s dairy aisle near you, you can use whatever you’d like — muenster, fontina, gruyere and provolone would be nice alternatives. Check out the related Isthmus column here.

Buffalo Mac n’ Cheese

1.5 lb pasta (macaroni, or your favorite variety)
3 c. half and half
2 eggs
1 lb gorgonzola
24 oz cream cheese, softened
1 lb buffalo mozzarella (cube half, cut other half into rounds 1/4″ thick)
8 oz Buffalo Jack, shredded
salt to taste
dash paprika and cayenne

Buffalo sauce:
3 sticks butter, melted
8 oz. Louisiana hot sauce

Pre-heat oven to 375 degress. Parboil pasta (about 4 minutes, not quite al dente). Make buffalo sauce by melting butter and mixing in hot sauce. Blend cream cheese with about 3/4 of the buffalo sauce. Reserve rest of sauce to spread on top of mac n’ cheese.

Beat eggs, stir in half and half, blend in cream cheese mixture. Stir in cubed mozzarella and jack. Combine cheese mixture with pasta in a casserole dish or cast iron skillet. Salt to taste and sprinkle top with paprika and cayenne. Spread remaining half of mozzarella (rounds) on top of pasta, cover top with remaining buffalo sauce.

Bake until bubbly and slightly crusted, about 40 min.