That’s why we Italians don’t eat Mac & Cheese

A classic scene from an Italian restaurant: a couple of tourists have just sat down at a table and they already know what to order without looking at the menu. They stare at the waiter and order their favorite “Italian” dish with a decisive air: “…Mac and Cheese as a side dish, please!”

Short after, the waiter can:

• Option A: Pass out
• Option B: Curse
• Option C: Get rough

Obviously, I am exaggerating; but actually, in the American imagination, macaroni and cheese is so closely linked to Italy that many still believe that it is a dish that we Italians know and eat… let’s clarify everything by finding out which dishes you should try instead of mac and cheese once you are seated at the table.

Mac and cheese are not a dish that can be defined as part of the Italian culinary culture: indeed, it is a dish of Anglo-American origin with a strong Italian reputation. In fact, here in Italy it is not even very well-known. Actually, I have never found a single restaurant or trattoria that served them in my entire life.

Dive into the Italian-American dishes that are unfamiliar in Italy by clicking here!

Why is it impossible to find Mac and Cheese in Italy?

It is not malice or contempt for American culinary traditions, but a strong sense of belonging to our way of preparing pasta, precisely in the sense in which every single ingredient is added to the dish and treated in the recipe.

In fact, in Italy it is almost impossible to find a restaurant that serves mac and cheese, precisely because this recipe is in fact very far from the tastes of us Italians in terms of pasta.

It will seem weird and absurd since we are talking of a dish whose two main ingredients are pasta and cheese but, if we analyze the dish carefully, you will understand that there are many little things that distance it from the Italian culinary tradition. Let’s see what they are.

Here are the reasons why Italians do not eat Mac and Cheese

1. Cheddar: let’s start right away talking about the elephant in the room, cheddar is an excellent cheese, an English one! Period. If there is one thing you will not find often in Italy, it is traditional dishes, like pasta, combined with non-Italian ingredients. Therefore, since cheddar is an English cheese, it is unlikely that a recipe for pasta topped with this cheese will catch on here in Italy.
2. Macaroni: not to keep shocking you but I must tell you that in Italy macaroni do not exist, or rather, they are not what you imagine. Firstly, we say Maccheroni and they are quite different from American Elbow Macaroni. Our Maccheroni are a type of short pasta with a tubular shape and externally grooved; while the Macaroni are always tubular in shape but with a much smaller section, curved and smooth on the outside. An Italian pasta shape that looks a lot like Macaroni Elbow are our Cellentani. If you are in Italy and you really want to cook a Mac&Cheese pasta you can use this shape.
3. Consistency: every Italian has different tastes when it comes to pasta, but everyone agrees on one thing only, cooking it al dente. There is not a single dish of pasta, even that passed in the oven, which must be served overcooked. Since the Mac and cheese is an Anglo-American recipe, cooking al dente is never among the priorities of the recipe. Additionally, the pasta that is already cooked and then placed in the oven submerged in a sauce made with milk and cheese, is undoubtedly delicious but certainly overcooked and with a pulpy consistency, very far from our tastes.
4. Paprika: even the use of spices like paprika in traditional Italian cuisine is certainly not our common. Although paprika is one of the most versatile spices used also in Italy, it is never combined with our classic dishes, but confined to ethnic recipes, and as images ethnic and pasta for us Italians are two separate worlds.
5. Is it a side dish?!: in America, Mac and Cheese are often eaten as a side dish to accompany a main course, both at home and in restaurants. This in Italy is not conceivable, we never use pasta as a side dish but as a main and solitary dish, that’s why it is called the first course!

In short, Mac and Cheese in Italy are not appreciated because it is a pasta recipe that has undergone too many contaminations in terms of ingredients and reinterpretations: paprika and cheddar are not typical ingredients of the boot. And even cooking in copious amounts of milk and melted cheese is not part of the Italian pasta culture.

I understand that Mac and Cheese is a comfort food that is difficult to replace for American people, but I assure you that in Italy there are many other pasta recipes that you can try instead of this dish, once you are here with us.

What pasta dish in Italy is similar to Mac and Cheese?

If you are in Italy and you want to eat Mac and Cheese, forget it, as I said before. You will not find it, alternatively try one of these dishes that share some characteristics with Mac and cheese, despite being traditional Italian dishes:

• Penne with four cheeses

• Pasta Cacio e Pepe

• Baked Pasta

Mac and Cheese Origins: American, English… But surely not Italian

The origins of Macaroni and Cheese are rather uncertain, according to some, its diffusion in the United States took place in the early 1800s thanks to President Thomas Jefferson who, after having tasted this dish for the first time during a visit to Paris, was so impressed that he made them replicated in all official banquets by his personal chef James Hemings.

In others’ opinion, this preparation has its origins in England in 1769 where it was mentioned for the first time in Elizabeth Raffald’s book The Experienced English Housekeeper.

It seems that in America Macaroni and Cheese were initially the preserve of only the wealthy class, due to the high cost of raw materials imported from Europe and that, only later, did they become an affordable and accessible to everyone. Today they are so famous that they are also sold pre-cooked in cans or cartons to be eaten after cooking, preparations that cause us Italians to despair.

Are Kraft Mac and Cheese there in Italy?

In addition to not being a well-known dish in Italy and orderable at restaurants, the Mac and Cheese here is not even purchasable in its Kraft canned “ready-to-cook” incarnation.

The reasons why they are absent from the shelves of our supermarkets are easy to tell, we have discussed it extensively before and, moreover, it is difficult to find pasta preparations with matching sauce in Italian supermarkets.

So now you understand the difference between the American Mac and Cheese and the Italian one, or rather that the second does not exist!