On Day 14, Aldi gave us this beautiful Smoked Paprika Gouda that I paired with Parmesan for a beautiful mac and cheese. Every year, Aldi releases a cheese Advent calendar. The calendar contains one individually wrapped piece of cheese for each day. There are twelve different cheeses available so we have two opportunities to explore different recipes we can make to feature each cheese. This is one of those recipes. Follow along here. Every year, Aldi releases a cheese Advent calendar. The calendar contains one individually wrapped piece of cheese for each day. There are twelve different cheeses available so we have two opportunities to explore different recipes we can make to feature each cheese. This is one of those recipes. Follow along here. Pasta When you’re considering pasta for a mac and cheese, it’s important to find balance. If your pasta is too large, it will be difficult to eat. Nobody wants to eat a dish that is more work than it’s worth. On the flip side, if your pasta is too small, your pasta runs the risk of becoming a soupy mess. Plus you can’t eat it with a fork, which also takes the fun out of it. This dish uses cavatappi pasta. Cavatappi is a corkscrew shaped pasta with plenty of ridges that hold onto sauce making sure every bite is full of cheesy flavor. Cheese When you take a bite of cheese, I want you to pay attention to where the flavor hits you. Some cheeses hit you right out the gate, and these are what I call Opener cheeses. Other cheeses take a few seconds for the flavor to really develop and these are Closer cheeses. Gouda is a cheese that tends to walk the line between opener and closer cheese depending on how long it’s been aged. Young goudas like we see in the Aldi calendar are opener cheeses. Paired with a smoky paprika it’s full of flavor that opens up at the beginning of the bite. Since the feature cheese is an opener, it only makes sense to grab my favorite closer cheese. Parmesan is easy to keep on hand and pairs beautifully with a variety of other cheeses.  Add a Fork  This Smoked Paprika Gouda mac and cheese is creamy and full of flavor. It would be an awesome side for a bbq or even as an entree topped with grilled chicken and crispy onions.