Day 20’s recipe in the Aldi cheese advent calendar is a sweet English cheddar mac and cheese topped with Parmesan crisps. Using Cheese in Mac and Cheese When you take a bite of cheese, pay attention to when the flavor starts to come through. Sometimes it takes a few seconds for it to develop, but lasts throughout the end of the bite. These are what I call closer cheeses. Other cheeses come through immediately, but fade away quickly. These are opener cheeses. Well-rounded mac and cheese recipes should include both opener and closer flavors to ensure there’s flavor throughout the entire bite. Sweet English cheddar The sweet moniker on this cheese lead me to believe this cheese was going to be sticky sweet. That is not the case. This is a great opener cheese, and the sharp cheddar flavors in Aldi’s cheddar curd shine through at the end of this mac and cheese, making it a well-rounded mac and cheese. Penne Pasta in Sweet English Cheddar Mac and Cheese Pasta is one of the most important ingredients in mac and cheese. If your noodle size is too small, you lose valuable texture and run the risk of your dish being a soupy mess. On the other hand, if your pasta is too large it’s cumbersome and difficult to eat. I used penne in this recipe, and it is in the perfect Goldilocks spot between too large and too small. Plus it offers plenty of crevices to hold onto all of that cheesy goodness. Toppings Toppings add extra layers of flavor, texture, and color and make your mac and cheese more interesting. In this recipe I used Parmesan crisps. They pack more cheesy flavor and a crunch that you can’t get from just cheese sauce and pasta. Reheating Sweet English Cheddar Mac and Cheese While most mac and cheese is difficult to reheat, I have no trouble reheating roux-based mac and cheese like this. A minute or two in the microwave and you’ll have perfectly creamy mac and cheese. In fact, letting the ingredients mingle for a couple of days in the microwave will yield even better mac and cheese than the day you made it. Add a Fork Sweet English cheddar mac and cheese is a delicious, creamy, cheesy dish packed with flavor and perfect for any time you need a comfort food pick me up.