When your kitchen is plagued with what Mother Cookie has coined “The Baby Barbie Oven,” cooking big meals can be a tricky task. Every Thanksgiving and Christmas in particular, we battle with how to cook the myriad of side dishes we decided would be a good idea to make. Even though we know we’ll never have enough room, there’s just too much good food we want to try to let our oven size limit our menu.

This past Thanksgiving, my mother and I planned ahead to try and avoid the annual oven fiasco. I decided what absolutely needed to be baked, and what could be done stovetop. I have always, always baked my mac & cheeses in the past, but I thought, why not just do it stovetop? Too often I’ve made what seems like the perfect saucy mac & cheese over the stove, only to transfer it to the oven to bake up golden brown and find that it has dried out too much inside.  But if I serve it straight from the pot, there’s no fear of a dry mac.

Stovetop cooking was the perfect method for my 3-Cheese Brussels Sprout Mac & Cheese. I made my creamiest mac ever with three decadent cheeses: Fontina, the queen of meltiness, sharp white cheddar, strong and robust, and my secret weapon: mascarpone, for one seriously indulgent and smooth sauce. The three in combination are the ultimate trio of cheeses, yielding a crazy creamy and cheesy sauce to submerge adorable bow tie pasta and fresh brussels sprouts in.

You’ve never had a sauce quite so creamy and rich. It’s divine, pure pasta heaven. Because we don’t bake it, there’s no fear it’ll dry up, or that there won’t be a good pasta-to-sauce ratio. There’s plenty of molten cheese to go around! And if you don’t like brussels sprouts, then don’t fear. I guarantee any sprout hater will change their tune when the sprouts are drowned in a decadent, garlicky 3-cheese sauce.

Even though this 5-star mac tastes fancy and supreme, you can have it to the table in under 30 minutes, whereas a baked mac and cheese could take over an hour. But you won’t know the difference; in fact, this is creamier than and just as flavorful as a baked mac.

You have no excuse not to make this cheese-covered dream. It’s quick, easy, and so very decadent.

A Few Tips Before You Get Cooking:

1. If you’re really completely 100% against brussels sprouts, just leave them out.
2. Bacon would be a fantastic addition to this dish.
3. Whole wheat or whole grain pasta is the way to go!
4. Never made a roux? It’s just a fancy word for a stupidly simple step. Check out my how-to video if you don’t believe me!
5. For a more Italian flavor, replace the white cheddar with parmesan cheese.
6. Make sure you don’t over cook your brussels sprouts. Nobody likes soggy sprouts!

Stovetop 3-Cheese Brussels Sprout Mac & Cheese
By The Smart Cookie Cook

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. farfalle (bow tie) pasta, or another short-cut pasta like shells or cavatappi
• 3 tbsp. butter
• 1 shallot, finely chopped
• 2 tsp. minced garlic
• 4 tbsp. all-purpose flour
• 3 cups whole milk
• 1 cup shredded white cheddar cheese
• 8 oz. (1 cup) shredded fontina cheese
• 4 oz. (1/2 cup) mascarpone cheese, room temperature
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. pepper
• 2 cups fresh brussels sprouts, cooked & drained

Directions:

1. In a large pot of salted boiling water over high heat, cook the pasta according to box directions until al dente. Drain.
2. Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, melt the butter. Add shallots and garlic and saute until translucent and aromatic, about 2 minutes. Whisk in the flour and let cook for 1 minute. Slowly whisk in milk until free of lumps then cover and let simmer until thickened, about 10 minutes.
3. Whisk in all the cheeses, salt, and pepper until smooth and melted. Taste test to decide if you’d like more cheese. If sauce is too thick for your liking, add more milk 1/4 cup at a time. Fold in brussel sprouts followed by pasta until well-coated. Serve immediately.