Harissa Mac and Cheese

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Mac and Cheese Is a Blank Canvas

Mac and cheese is one of the greatest dishes in American cooking. A combination of pasta and cheese sauce is so simple and so satisfying that it works exactly as it is and also as a starting point for almost anything you want to do with it.

And what I wanted to do with it was call in some help from North Africa.

Harissa is a Tunisian chili paste built on roasted peppers, dried chilies, garlic, and a blend of warming spices. It has a punchy heat, a smokiness from the roasted peppers, and a slow-building warmth from the spices that lingers long after the bite is gone. It is one of the most interesting chili pastes in the world and it pairs with mac and cheese seamlessly.

Mac and cheese gives you comfort and simplicity. Harissa gives you peppery complexity and heat. The combination gives you something that is still fundamentally mac and cheese but with a depth of flavor that the original never had. The harissa gets infused into the mornay sauce so every noodle is coated in it. Then it gets dolloped on top before baking where it chars slightly in the oven, creating a cheesy, spicy, caramelized crust that is the best part of the whole dish.

This is mac and cheese with a passport.

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Harissa Mac and Cheese Recipe

Ingredients

Harissa Paste (makes extra)

• 1 red bell pepper
• 4-6 mild dried chilies (guajillo works well), deseeded
• 2-8 spicy dried chilies (chile de arbol or bird’s eye), deseeded
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 2 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tsp cumin seeds, ground
• 1 tsp coriander seeds, ground
• ½ tsp caraway seeds, ground
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 3 tbsp olive oil

Mornay Sauce

• 42 g (3 tbsp) butter
• 45 g (3 tbsp) flour
• 480 ml (2 cups) whole milk
• 120 g (½ cup) cheese blend
• Salt, to taste

Cheese Blend (you can do whatever you feel like here, but this is my preferred blend)

• High moisture mozzarella
• Gouda
• Aged cheddar
• American cheese

Other

• 200 g dried pasta (fusilli recommended)

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Instructions

Step 1: Make the Harissa Paste

Char the pepper

Place the red bell pepper directly over a gas flame or under a broiler and char on all sides until the skin is completely blackened. Transfer to a bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and steam for 5 minutes. Peel away the charred skin and remove the seeds. Set the roasted pepper flesh aside.

Rehydrate the dried chilies

Place the dried chilies in a heatproof bowl and pour boiling water over them. Let soak for about 10 minutes until fully softened. Drain and set aside.

The number of spicy chilies you use controls the heat level of the final dish. Two chile de arbol gives a gentle warmth throughout the mac and cheese. Eight gives you something that will clear a table.

Blend

In a blender or food processor, combine the charred pepper flesh, rehydrated chilies, garlic, tomato paste, smoked paprika, cumin, coriander, caraway, lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, and olive oil. Blend until completely smooth. Taste and adjust seasoning. Set aside.

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Step 2: Prepare the Cheese Blend

Grate the mozzarella, gouda, and aged cheddar and tear the American cheese into pieces. Combine in a large bowl and set aside. Having everything grated and ready before the sauce goes on the heat means the cheese melts in smoothly.

Use whatever cheese combination you prefer here. The blend above is optimized for melt, stretch, and flavor balance but this recipe is flexible. Any good melting cheese works.

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Step 3: Make the Mornay Sauce

1. In a heavy-bottom saucepan over medium-low heat, melt the butter until foaming.
2. Add the flour and whisk constantly for about 1-2 minutes until the roux is smooth and just beginning to smell nutty. Do not let it brown.
3. Slowly pour in the whole milk in a thin stream, whisking constantly to prevent lumps from forming. Keep whisking until the sauce is completely smooth.
4. Cook over medium heat, stirring regularly, until the sauce has thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 5-7 minutes.
5. Reduce heat to low and add the cheese blend in handfuls, stirring between each addition until fully melted and the sauce is glossy and smooth.
6. Add 3 tablespoons of harissa paste and stir to combine. Taste and add more harissa if you want more heat and depth. Season with salt to taste.

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Step 4: Cook the Pasta

Cook the fusilli in well-salted boiling water until just under al dente, about 1-2 minutes less than the package instructions. The pasta will continue cooking in the oven so pulling it slightly early prevents it from going mushy in the final bake.

Drain and reserve a small amount of pasta water.

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Step 5: Combine

Add the drained pasta to the harissa mornay sauce and toss until every noodle is fully coated. If the sauce feels too thick, loosen with a small splash of the reserved pasta water.

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Step 6: Bake

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
2. Transfer the pasta and sauce into a baking dish and spread evenly.
3. Top generously with the remaining cheese blend and add small dollops of harissa paste across the surface. The harissa will caramelize and char slightly in the oven, creating intensely flavored pockets throughout the cheesy crust.
4. Bake for 20-30 minutes until the top is deeply golden, the cheese is bubbling at the edges, and the harissa has charred and concentrated on the surface.
5. Let rest for 5 minutes before serving. The sauce continues to set slightly as it cools.

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Tips

• Make the harissa ahead. The paste keeps in the fridge for up to two weeks and actually improves in flavor after a day or two as the spices continue to bloom. Making it the day before means the harissa you add to the mornay is already at its best.
• Pull the pasta early. Fully al dente pasta going into a 400°F oven for 25 minutes comes out overcooked. Pull it two minutes before the package time and the final result will be perfectly cooked.
• Add the cheese off the heat. The mornay sauce should be thickened and off direct heat before the cheese goes in. Adding cheese to a sauce that is still boiling causes it to break and become grainy. Reduce to the lowest heat possible before the cheese goes in.
• Be generous with the harissa dollops on top. The dollops on the surface are what create the most interesting part of the crust. They char and caramelize in the oven and produce concentrated, spicy pockets throughout the top layer that make every scoop from the baking dish different from the last.
• Use a wide, shallow baking dish. More surface area means more crust. A wide, shallow dish gives you a better ratio of cheesy, charred top to creamy interior than a deep, narrow one.

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Serving Suggestions

Harissa mac and cheese is rich enough to be a complete meal on its own. If you want to build a larger spread around it, a simple green salad with a sharp lemon vinaigrette cuts through the richness and resets the palate between bites. It also works as a side alongside grilled lamb or chicken thighs where the harissa in the mac and cheese ties into the flavors of the main protein. Leftover harissa paste from the recipe is excellent drizzled over the finished dish right before serving for an extra hit of heat and smokiness.

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Final Thoughts

Mac and cheese does not need to be fixed. It is already great. But greatness does not preclude growth, and harissa is exactly the kind of addition that makes a great dish more interesting without changing what made it great in the first place.

Tunisia via North Africa, fused with the most iconic American comfort food. A combination that makes complete sense once you taste it and makes you wonder why it took this long to put them together.

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Tags: harissa mac and cheese recipe, harissa pasta recipe, baked mac and cheese recipe,