Easy Cheese Pasta
8/30/2025
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It’s simple weeknight dinner time! My easy cheese pasta is my family’s favorite. I mean, what is better than noodles and cheese?
The BEST Easy Cheese Pasta Recipe
If you’re looking for an easy weeknight meal, this is it! My simple cheese pasta is made with THREE varieties of cheese for ultimate cheesiness, and is ready to serve in under 30 minutes.
What I love about simple dishes like this is that you can serve them during the week for a family dinner, but you can also whip this out on Christmas for a show-stopping side. Plus, I used a fun twisty noodle and my toddler loved it!
The Recipe Rundown
This cheese pasta sauce is a roux-based sauce made with Gouda, cheddar, and a little Parmesan cheese. I love to serve this with a cavatappi noodle, but that’s the beauty about this recipe — use whatever noodle you or your kids love.
You can serve it simple as-is, or feel free to toss in a protein like chicken and something green like peas (it’s one of my favorite ways to sneak in a veg).
What You Need
- Cavatappi noodles: we love love love the fun shape of cavatappi noodles, but feel free to use 8 oz. of whatever variety of pasta your heart desires.
- Heavy cream: the heavy cream is used in the roux for this cheese pasta to help make it super duper creamy.
- Shredded gouda and cheddar cheese: cheese is the star of the show for this pasta, of course! We’re using a combination of shredded cheddar and shredded gouda.
- Grated parmesan cheese: grated parm adds a very nice salty and cheesy flavor. Don’t skip this!
- Salt & pepper: sprinkle on to your liking!
Let’s talk cheese:
You need 1 cup of cheese for this easy cheese pasta. It can truly be any combination of cheese that you’d like or have on hand.
Tutorial
How to Grate Cheese
Whether you have a box grater at home or find yourself in need of grated cheese and no grater, we’ve got you covered on how to grate cheese without a cheese grater!
How to Make The Best Cheese Pasta
boil pasta
Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Add the pasta to the water and cook the noodles until al dente and then strain noodles.
We recommend following the directions on your pasta box.
Make the roux
Heat a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the heavy cream and heat for about 1 minute and then mix the cheeses into the warmed cream and mix until the cheese has melted. YUM.
roux tip!
If you make a smaller batch of this recipe, your roux will come together more quickly. Reversely, if you double or triple this recipe, your roux will take a little longer (get ready to whiskkkk!).
Combine pasta & cheese sauce
Remove the saucepan from the heat and add the cooked noodles and mix to combine. Serve immediately, and enjoy!
Tutorial
How to Thicken Pasta Sauce
No matter how closely you follow a recipe, sometimes you end up with a watery pasta sauce. Have no fear, it is very easy to thicken pasta sauce one of these 3 ways!
Can you make this gluten-free?
Swap the all-purpose flour for an all-purpose g/f flour blend (we recommend Bob’s Red Mill) 1:1 and use gluten-free noodles.
How do you make mac and cheese sauce thinner?
Looking to thin out your cheese pasta sauce? Add additional heavy cream by the tablespoon and stir over low heat until you reach your desired consistency.
Storage
Store this cheese pasta in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-5 days.
How to Reheat
The key to reheating cheese pasta is two fold:
- add a little moisture (milk works great!) since the noodles continue to absorb moisture even after it’s originally cooked
- reheat low and slow to avoid the cheese breaking down and changing texture.
Oven Directions
If you have time to reheat your cheese pasta in the oven, that is a great method!
Simply add a little milk (start with a tablespoon, and go up from there depending on how much cheese pasta you’re reheating!), and stir thoroughly before covering an oven-safe dish and placing in the oven at 350°F.
You’ll need 10-20 minutes of reheating time, depending on how much pasta you’re reheating.
Can you freeze cheese pasta?
We unfortunately don’t recommend freezing this easy cheese pasta. Both noodles and dairy don’t do too well when thawing and reheating.
Easy Cheese Pasta
Ingredients
- 8 oz. dry cavatappi pasta, or any pasta of choice
- ¾ cup heavy cream
- ½ cup shredded cheddar cheese
- ¼ cup shredded gouda cheese
- ¼ cup grated parmesan cheese
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon cracked black pepper
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Add the pasta to the water and cook the noodles until al dente and then strain noodles. Set aside.
- Heat a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the heavy cream and heat for about 1 minute and then mix the cheeses into the warmed cream and mix until the cheese has melted.
- Remove the saucepan from the heat and add the cooked noodles and mix to combine. Serve immediately.
Tips & Notes
- You need 1 cup of cheese for this dish. It can truly be any combination of cheese that you like. It is also a great way to use up small amounts of cheese you might have. Or a great way to play around with combinations of cheeses.
- How to reheat: If you have time to reheat your cheese pasta in the oven, that is a great method! Simply add a little milk (start with a tablespoon, and go up from there depending on how much cheese pasta you’re reheating!), and stir thoroughly before covering an oven-safe dish and placing in the oven at 350°F. You’ll need 10-20 minutes of reheating time, depending on how much pasta you’re reheating.
Watch It
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Don’t forget to tag your posts on social media with the hashtag #cheeseknees, we’d love to see what you’re up to!
