Italian “Mac and Cheese”

Pasta with butter and cheese: lush, slightly salty, creamy — what’s not to like? One of my earliest memories of having it is with my cousin when I was ten or eleven. I remember he was quite serious about how it should be made. “You have to use lots and lots of butter,” he pronounced. Michela, our little seven-year-old pasta queen, asked me one day if I knew how to make mac and cheese.

“I make pasta al burro e formaggio,” I told her.

“OK, I’ll tell you