Amp Up Your Mac and Cheese with Sausage and Peppers

There’s something about this combination of elements—the creamy cheese sauce laced with fontina and Parmesan; the tender morsels of garlicky Italian sausage; the sweet sautéed onion and peppers—that makes this meal as comforting as standard mac and cheese but more exciting. 

Some elements of the recipe are worth taking a moment to zoom in on, as attention to them guarantees delicious, failproof results every time. 

First up is the pasta shape. Sure, if you’re a purist you could go with elbow macaroni, but we really like the way the spirals and crevices of rotini hold on to the creamy sauce. Boiling the pasta until just al dente ensures that it doesn’t get soft or mushy in the casserole. Can you still call it macaroni and cheese? We think so.

Second, we chose this exact blend of cheeses deliberately, with an eye to creating a smooth, creamy sauce with a robust, complex cheese flavor. An ample amount of American cheese establishes the textural base for the sauce, contributing a mild milky flavor. Fontina, on the other hand, is not only a very good melting cheese but also packs rich, buttery, tangy flavor. (You can swap in extra-sharp cheddar for a more classic flavor.) 

For this dish, we employ the American and fontina cheeses generously and in equal amounts, adding a relatively small amount of supersavory Parmesan cheese for its rich, nutty flavor. 

Dijon mustard and the heat from the spicy Italian sausage (choose sweet if you’re spice‑averse) help cut through and balance the rich sauce. 

A very small amount of flour—too much introduces a stodgy, grainy, or chalky texture—keeps the sauce emulsified even through multiple reheatings, with no danger of it separating and becoming greasy.

Finally, topping the casserole with more shredded fontina; 1 cup of reserved sautéed sausage, onion, and peppers; paprika; and fennel seeds creates an incredibly flavorful cheesy crust and adds allure to the presentation, showcasing the flavors within. The fennel seeds call out the fennel in the sausage, which browns and intensifies on top of the casserole in the oven. 

After a 20-minute rest for the sauce to tighten up and cool slightly (be patient; it’s lava!), there’s nothing left but to break in for a big scoop and a picturesque cheese pull.