Recipe: Homemade "Italian" Style Mac & Cheese

Let me start by saying that Italians don't eat Mac & Cheese. It does not exist in their vocabularies. They definitely don't have cheddar here, so making a traditional mac & cheese is pretty much out of the question. I think the closest they have is a 4 formaggi sauce but it's very different than mac & cheese. It's heavier with stronger flavors since it usually involves gorgonzola (which is a kind of blue cheese I think).
I looked up Mac & cheese recipes yesterday because I was having a craving during work.  I found a wonderfully simply recipe Revolutionary Macaroni and cheese on Cate's  World Kitchen and decided to adapt it since I lacked certain ingredients (like cheddar).

Since I did not have access to cheddar cheese I used this wonderful creamy walnut cheese. It helped the consistency of the mac and cheese and also added a lovely crunch because of the pieces of whole walnut. Then to supplement that cheese I also used some parmesan cheese to round out the flavor.
I loved that the original recipe only required dirtying one bowl... That being said, because I'm me, I wound up dirtying 2 pots because I started cooking making my pasta in one that was too small.... Yeahhh. I made a large mess. Use the appropriate pots and pans!

Ingredients:
2 cups dried pasta (I used rigatoni)
2 cups milk (I used whole milk, but you can absolutely use 2% or skim)
1/2 cup creamy walnut cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 tsp salt
2 tsps pepper
1 pinch red pepper flakes (optional

Combine the pasta and milk in a pot (make sure it is big enough for 2 cups of cooked pasta!!) and bring to a simmer.  Add in salt, pepper and red pepper flakes at this point.  The flavors will really seep into the pasta.  Cook and continually stir on low heat until the pasta is cooked through.  It should take about 15 to 20 minutes but make sure the milk doesn't boil! If it boils (like mine did for a moment) it will go right over the edge of the pot and make a disaster for you to clean up!
When the pasta is just about done and the milk is almost all gone stir in the walnut cheese and parmesan.
Cover and let stand for about 5 minutes. Stir well to serve.

This was super simple to make and absolutely delicious. Cooking the pasta with milk definitely lended to the taste and really helped the overall creaminess of the dish.  I'll definitely be trying it again with different cheeses.