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Macaroni in a creamy orange cheese and Calabrian chili sauce.

Calabrian Chili Mac and Cheese

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Elbow pasta folded into a rich, velvety cheddar cheese sauce spiked with the fruity, smoky heat of Italian Calabrian chilis.

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4 servings4 servings
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The story behind the recipe

Sharp cheddar can stand up to a spoonful of hot peppers. In this stovetop mac and cheese, Calabrian chili paste brings fruity heat and small red flecks to the sauce, with enough cheese to keep the bowl firmly in mac-and-cheese territory. There's no oven finish: the pleasure is in the loose, creamy sauce caught around the elbows.

The peppers in the jar

Calabria is the southern Italian region at the toe of the country's boot. Its hot peppers are sold whole, chopped and crushed into oil-packed pastes.

Choose crushed paste in oil for this recipe. A bottle of pourable hot sauce introduces a different balance of liquid and acid; dried flakes have neither the same texture nor the pepper-rich oil. You don't need a particular brand, but you do need the same kind of ingredient.

The recipe's heaping tablespoon makes a fairly assertive bowl, and the notes give a smaller allowance for mild warmth. The heat of the jar still matters. If you're cooking for people with different tolerances, starting with that milder option is an easier decision than trying to soften a sauce that's already too hot.

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Creaminess needs gentle heat

The cheese doesn't have to hold the sauce together by itself. Butter, flour and milk make a base that coats the pasta before the grated cheddar joins it. That gives you a creamy sauce without needing a huge quantity of melted cheese in every forkful.

Freshly grate a block of cheddar. You can see its texture and choose its sharpness, and it avoids relying on how a particular bag of coated shreds behaves. More mature cheese makes its presence felt through the chili; a milder cheddar shifts attention toward the peppers and milk.

The most consequential moment comes after the milk sauce thickens: take the pan off the burner. The residual heat melts the cheese, while a continuing hard simmer risks spoiling the smooth finish. Stirring harder isn't a substitute for lowering the heat.

Small curved pasta gives the sauce somewhere to collect, so elbows and cavatappi both make sense. Serve it while the coating still moves around the pasta. As the bowl cools it will thicken; the reheating note explains how a little milk can loosen leftovers without turning the first serving into a thin sauce.

Make it your wayOriginal: 4 servings

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Ingredients

For 4 servings. Quantities are shown as written.

Source measurement convention: Metric. Explicit unit definitions take precedence; unconfirmed measures must be checked before conversion.

Original quantities for 4 servings.

  • Dry elbow macaroni (or cavatappi)250 g
  • Unsalted butter30 g
  • All-purpose flour15 g
  • Whole milk350 ml
  • Sharp cheddar cheese, freshly grated from a block200 g
  • (1 heaping tbsp) Crushed Calabrian chili paste in oil20 g
  • Kosher salt3 gAuthor measures: 1/2 metric tsp (1 metric tsp = 5 ml).
  • Salt, as needed for pasta cooking water
  • Garlic powder1 gAuthor measures: 1/4 metric tsp (1 metric tsp = 5 ml).
Original ingredients
  • 250 g dry elbow macaroni (or cavatappi)
  • 30 g unsalted butter
  • 15 g all-purpose flour
  • 350 ml whole milk
  • 200 g sharp cheddar cheese, freshly grated from a block
  • 20 g (1 heaping tbsp) crushed Calabrian chili paste in oil
  • 3 g (1/2 tsp) kosher salt
  • Salt, as needed for pasta cooking water
  • 1 g (1/4 tsp) garlic powder
Equipment
  • 4-liter pasta pot
  • 3-liter heavy saucepan
  • Whisk
  • Colander

Instructions

  1. Cook the macaroni and warm the milk

    Bring a large pot of water to a boil, adding salt for the cooking water. Add the dry elbow macaroni and cook according to its package directions until al dente, then drain. While it cooks, make the sauce and gently warm the measured whole milk in a small saucepan or suitable microwave-safe jug.

  2. Make the roux

    While the pasta cooks, in a heavy 3-liter saucepan over medium heat, melt the unsalted butter. Whisk in the all-purpose flour and cook, whisking constantly, for 1 minute until pale, bubbly, and fragrant.

  3. Whisk in the milk and thicken

    Gradually stream in the warm milk while whisking briskly to prevent lumps. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, whisking frequently, until the sauce thickens and coats the back of a spoon.

  4. Season with Calabrian chili

    Remove the saucepan from the heat immediately. Add the kosher salt, garlic powder, and the crushed Calabrian chili paste in oil, whisking until the sauce takes on a warm orange hue.

  5. Melt in the cheddar

    Add the freshly grated sharp cheddar cheese in three handfuls, stirring with a silicone spatula until melted and smooth.

  6. Fold in the macaroni and serve

    Fold the drained macaroni directly into the hot cheese sauce, stirring until coated. Serve hot.

Estimated calories 550 kcal

Nutrition portion: 1/4 of recipe · Original yield: 4 servings

Source & assumptions

Ingredient-based estimate using CoFID 2021, USDA SR Legacy (2018), representative labels for Vertullo Calabrian Chili Paste. About 550 kcal per nutrition portion (1/4 of the recipe). Uses a representative oil-packed Calabrian chili paste. Pasta is estimated from dry durum wheat pasta, with a published representative cooking-loss adjustment; all cheese sauce is included. Actual ingredients and preparation affect the estimate.

Recipe notes

Original recipe notes

These notes describe the original recipe. Quantities mentioned here do not change when you adjust servings.

Calabrian chili heat: Crushed Calabrian chilis packed in oil vary in spice intensity. One heaping tablespoon gives a medium-high, warming heat. Reduce to 1 level teaspoon for mild warmth.

Cheese choices: Sharp white cheddar, fontina, or Gruyère can replace the cheddar. Freshly grated block cheese is a useful choice for a smooth sauce. Packaged shredded cheeses vary, and their coatings can affect melting.

Reheating: Leftovers thicken as they cool. Reheat gently with a splash of extra milk, stirring until hot throughout and reaching 74°C (165°F). Add more milk only as needed to loosen the sauce.

Read the scaling guide. Times, temperatures and equipment need their own consideration. Open the recipe tool to review and correct individual amounts.

Recipe details

Course or meal
DinnerLunchMain course
Cuisine
Other / International
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Main Dishes
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Calabrian chili mac and cheesecheddar sauce