Italian 'twist' on mac & cheese

There are so many different shapes of pasta in Italy and each one has its own name. Some have obvious meaning, and others not so much.

I like using Cellentani, which is also called Cavatappi, which is the Italian word for corkscrew. They also look like 3 or 4 elbow macaroni stuck together.

This pasta works great for my own version of Italian mac n' cheese.

I used five types of Italian cheeses melted into a bechamel sauce and combined with fresh roasted tomatoes, roasted red pepper marinated in olive oil and fresh basil leaves.

The combination is a more robust, complex flavor than standard mac n' cheese. It's a little more time consuming but worth the trouble.