The Art of Creating a Grown-Up Version of Macaroni and Cheese: A Recipe Inspired by Buttermilk Pasta with Peas and Pistachios

As we embark on this culinary adventure, it's essential to understand that our recipe is an inspired interpretation of traditional macaroni and cheese. By incorporating buttermilk instead of bechamel sauce, we're creating a creamy, tangy flavor profile that elevates this comfort food classic to new heights. Let's start by slicing the leeks, focusing on the light green and white parts, as they will serve as the base of our sauce. The addition of garlic is a must, but we'll be using it in a clever way – thinly sliced onto the mandolin for a delicate texture that won't overpower the other ingredients.

Now that we have our leeks and garlic ready, it's time to heat up our Dutch oven over medium heat. We'll add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, followed by three tablespoons of butter, as this combination will help us achieve a perfect balance of flavors. The butter will brown less quickly when mixed with the olive oil due to its higher smoke point, ensuring that we don't get too much browning on our vegetables during the initial cooking phase. Next, we'll add our aromatics – a few sprigs of fresh mint and some red pepper flakes – which will perfume our sautéed leeks and garlic.

Our aromatic mixture is now ready to be swirled into the butter and olive oil mixture, creating a fragrant base for our sauce. We'll cook it gently over low heat, allowing the flavors to meld together without browning or caramelizing excessively. This gentle approach will help preserve the delicate texture of our leeks, ensuring they retain some of their crunchiness throughout the cooking process.

While our vegetables are cooking, we can prepare our pasta – a type known as "kissa," which translates to "little ears" in Italian. We'll add it to the pot with aggressive salting, allowing the water to become seasoned and ready for our delicate pasta. The addition of kissa pasta is crucial, as its unique shape will help trap the flavors we're creating within each bite.

Now that our pasta has been added, we can bring everything together – literally! We'll introduce our buttermilk sauce into the pot, stirring it gently to combine with the cooked leeks and garlic. The resulting sauce should be broken, with the buttermilk having split from the other ingredients due to its acidity. Don't worry; this is a sign that our sauce is coming together as we add starchy pasta water and emulsify in Parmesan cheese.

With our sauce now thickening, we can add English peas and snap peas, which will cook quickly in essentially blanched water seasoned with salt. This approach streamlines the cooking process by minimizing the need for separate pots for boiling the peas. Our peas are now crispy-tender, adding a delightful contrast to the creamy sauce.

We're getting close! With our pasta almost cooked al dente and our peas perfectly tenderized, it's time to stir everything together vigorously. This movement will help re-emulsify our broken sauce, ensuring we achieve a smooth, even consistency throughout each serving. As we add additional Parmesan cheese and pasta water, the sauce should begin to take shape.

Now that all components are in place, let's taste and adjust as needed. A pinch of black pepper can work wonders here, adding depth without overpowering our delicate flavors. Fresh mint sprigs still cling to the edges of the bowl; we'll discard them for now and finish with crushed pistachios sprinkled atop the pasta.

Finally, it's time to savor this masterpiece! Our buttermilk pasta with peas and pistachios has come together beautifully – each bite transports us on a flavorful journey through Italy. The tangy, creamy sauce, crunchy veggies, and satisfying nuttiness all harmonize perfectly in this comforting dish inspired by a traditional Italian pasta creation.

Andy agrees wholeheartedly that our buttermilk pasta is an absolute triumph. For those who are skeptical about the use of pasta in its "grown-up" form, rest assured – there's never been a more delectable twist on macaroni and cheese!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enmalee pasta Molly pasta Oh am I supposed to cop let me just find it in here it sounds wacky or a cat a with buttermilk peas and mint but it's really not orecchiette with buttermilk peas and pistachios which actually is like a grownup version of macaroni and cheese adding English peas snap peas and mint because tis the season and making a sauce out of buttermilk instead of bechamel so I'm gonna start by slicing these leeks the light green and white parts only the leeks and the garlic are gonna be the base of our sauce garlic on the mandolin because it's the best way but be careful of your fingers if you don't have a mandolin or you're scared of using a mandolin just thinly slice it once you get down to the little nub at the end and you're like I'm about to cut my fingers off that's when you stop so Andiamo yeah no it's Italian because we're making pasta you dodo I have medium heat over here in a small Dutch oven and I'm going to add a couple tablespoons of olive oil 3 tablespoons of butter swirl it around a little I use a combination of butter and olive oil because the butter will Brown less quickly when you cut it with olive oil because it has a higher smoke point so that way you won't get too much browning on the vegetables during this initial phase of the cooking I'm adding my aromatics a few sprigs of mint going and hold they're just gonna perfume this saute of vegetables here and some red pepper flake so gonna sweat these out which basically means cook them really gently so that they don't get any browning on them or carmelization I'm going to turn this down to low and just let these gently cook meanwhile salting my pasta water pretty aggressively and I'm gonna drop my pasta which is or a kiss a which means little ears in Italian and it's the best kind of pasta out there it's the best shape I think they also set that in another video about bucatini but I actually really feel strongly about for it getting the veg is looking nice and sweaty I don't want to take it much further because I want it to keep some of its integrity so in we go and we're just gonna bring that up to a simmer the sauce looks broken see notice how the buttermilk has split it will come back together when we add starchy pasta water and emulsify in the Parmesan cheese okay let's see where we're at okay this is a good time to add peas for the last few minutes cooking so in they go it's essentially blanching water it's already seasoned there's no sense in having two separate pots for blanching peas and cooking pasta this all happens in one fell swoop and then gets added to the sauce I'm gonna pull out the mint sprig that's now kind of sad and soggy over here and discard it it's been about two minutes and the peas are now crispy crisp tender I'm gonna add them to the sauce with your kit a very important element always save some pasta water you never know when you're gonna need it so we're adding the cheese little by little until all of the pasta seems nicely coated and you should stir pretty vigorously because it's gonna help bring that broken sauce back together if it gets thick which it feels kind of thick right now we'll add some pasta water which is why we saved it there's the rest of the parm a little bit more pasta water getting nice and glossy fresh mint couple sprigs a good amount of black pepper because it goes beautifully with parm and helps cut some of the richness and I'm gonna add a tiny bit more of this that's a fat bowl of pasta right there fat PHA t obviously okay and then just finishing it with crushed toasted pistachios which you can crush with the bottom of a measuring glass or a heavy-bottomed pot a little saucepan so those get sprinkled over top also I think they pair beautifully with Parmesan cheese always finish with olive oil and a little bit of black pepper pourquoi pas they boil up so make this on a hot summer night and you won't regret it Andy's gonna weigh in but I did that for the camera I love pasta you're not like much of a carb guy so don't hope this goes well don't look I mean they know great would you eat that absolutely I mean right now we're just in general just in general yeah absolutely baby approved burgonia approved crispy met Chris person that was kind of like a bacon word but I guess it works for peas too but they're crisp tender which is different from crispy Mick Christofferson know your crispsmalee pasta Molly pasta Oh am I supposed to cop let me just find it in here it sounds wacky or a cat a with buttermilk peas and mint but it's really not orecchiette with buttermilk peas and pistachios which actually is like a grownup version of macaroni and cheese adding English peas snap peas and mint because tis the season and making a sauce out of buttermilk instead of bechamel so I'm gonna start by slicing these leeks the light green and white parts only the leeks and the garlic are gonna be the base of our sauce garlic on the mandolin because it's the best way but be careful of your fingers if you don't have a mandolin or you're scared of using a mandolin just thinly slice it once you get down to the little nub at the end and you're like I'm about to cut my fingers off that's when you stop so Andiamo yeah no it's Italian because we're making pasta you dodo I have medium heat over here in a small Dutch oven and I'm going to add a couple tablespoons of olive oil 3 tablespoons of butter swirl it around a little I use a combination of butter and olive oil because the butter will Brown less quickly when you cut it with olive oil because it has a higher smoke point so that way you won't get too much browning on the vegetables during this initial phase of the cooking I'm adding my aromatics a few sprigs of mint going and hold they're just gonna perfume this saute of vegetables here and some red pepper flake so gonna sweat these out which basically means cook them really gently so that they don't get any browning on them or carmelization I'm going to turn this down to low and just let these gently cook meanwhile salting my pasta water pretty aggressively and I'm gonna drop my pasta which is or a kiss a which means little ears in Italian and it's the best kind of pasta out there it's the best shape I think they also set that in another video about bucatini but I actually really feel strongly about for it getting the veg is looking nice and sweaty I don't want to take it much further because I want it to keep some of its integrity so in we go and we're just gonna bring that up to a simmer the sauce looks broken see notice how the buttermilk has split it will come back together when we add starchy pasta water and emulsify in the Parmesan cheese okay let's see where we're at okay this is a good time to add peas for the last few minutes cooking so in they go it's essentially blanching water it's already seasoned there's no sense in having two separate pots for blanching peas and cooking pasta this all happens in one fell swoop and then gets added to the sauce I'm gonna pull out the mint sprig that's now kind of sad and soggy over here and discard it it's been about two minutes and the peas are now crispy crisp tender I'm gonna add them to the sauce with your kit a very important element always save some pasta water you never know when you're gonna need it so we're adding the cheese little by little until all of the pasta seems nicely coated and you should stir pretty vigorously because it's gonna help bring that broken sauce back together if it gets thick which it feels kind of thick right now we'll add some pasta water which is why we saved it there's the rest of the parm a little bit more pasta water getting nice and glossy fresh mint couple sprigs a good amount of black pepper because it goes beautifully with parm and helps cut some of the richness and I'm gonna add a tiny bit more of this that's a fat bowl of pasta right there fat PHA t obviously okay and then just finishing it with crushed toasted pistachios which you can crush with the bottom of a measuring glass or a heavy-bottomed pot a little saucepan so those get sprinkled over top also I think they pair beautifully with Parmesan cheese always finish with olive oil and a little bit of black pepper pourquoi pas they boil up so make this on a hot summer night and you won't regret it Andy's gonna weigh in but I did that for the camera I love pasta you're not like much of a carb guy so don't hope this goes well don't look I mean they know great would you eat that absolutely I mean right now we're just in general just in general yeah absolutely baby approved burgonia approved crispy met Chris person that was kind of like a bacon word but I guess it works for peas too but they're crisp tender which is different from crispy Mick Christofferson know your crisps\n"