Crab Mac n' Cheese with Black Truffle Cheese Sauce

Ah comfort food. It's been cold and windy here in Las Vegas (yes, it does get cold) so I wanted to make something to comfort the soul. What better thing to warm the soul than a consoling bowl of macaroni and cheese ! This isn't your everyday Mac n' Cheese I know, but the King Crab and Truffle butter was screaming out to do something with them. I did... here it is.

Ingredients :

2 cups dried large elbow pasta

2 TB sea salt, for boiling water

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup flour

1 cup milk, (don't use skim or lowfat.we want fat!)

1 cup cream, half n half

1 1/2 cup Gruyere cheese, shredded ( I used Emmi Swiss Imported)

1 cup aged cheddar, ( I used Kerrigold Ireland Imported)

1-2 cups King Crab, cut into chunks.

2 Tb Black Truffle Butter ( Whole Foods has a great one)

Breadcrumb Topping :

1/2 cup plain breadcrumbs

1 TB of bacon, cooked and crumbled fine (1-2 slices of bacon)

1 TB Butter

1 Tsp Truffle oil (a treat brought back from Provence - France, find in most gourmet stores)

How To :

Bring a pot of water to a boil, add a generous amount of sea salt to water...this will flavor the pasta.

Make roux , melt butter in pot until butter clarifies... see through it and milk solids have disolved. Add flour to melted butter. Allow to cook for about 3 mins then there will not be a pasty flour taste to the sauce.

Add milk and cream and stir until the sauce thickens. If too thick..add a little more cream.

Add the two cheeses. Incorporated until creamy and smooth.

Add Crab

To the sauce, add the Black Truffle butter.

Add the cook pasta.

Put pasta in a casserole dish.

Prepare Breadcrumb topping and sprinkle over mac n' cheese.

This has a short cooking time, long enough to brown the breadcrumb topping and heat pasta throughout.

350 convection oven for 15-20 minutes.

Serve and Enjoy Every Bite.