French Onion Mac n’ Cheese
Pasta picnic for 30 friends! 20 pounds of pasta and 200 cherry tomatoes later
Ryan Nordheimer•
July 31, 2026
On the Italian carb spectrum people fall into one of two camps: pasta lover or pizza lover.
I, personally, will never settle for pizza — ironically, because my family owns a pizza restaurant. In fact, I’ve polled my entire extended family of 11 what their favorite food is (actually multiple times, like an annual Gallup poll of sorts), and out of all possible possibilities, at least a majority of them answered pizza, including both of my parents and my brother.
I, however, will always be on team pasta. Pasta is whimsical. Pasta is limitless. Pasta is a kind of food you never stop trying to master (I mean, the same can be said about pizza, but please ignore this reasoning for my sake).
What an opportunity, I say, to host a pasta picnic outside. After all, the color of a picnic blanket and an Italian American restaurant’s tablecloth are strikingly similar as you can see in the photos.
I had the idea to host a pasta picnic as a follow-up act to the dessert party in June. I pondered, what other food category feels summery but lends itself to a buffet? Salads, sure. But “salad picnic for 30 friends” doesn’t have the same ring. Cold soups, sure. But, and this is my biggest gripe with soup, how the heck are you supposed to serve it? Does everyone walk around with a plate balanced with a variety of mini cups, attempting to try all the soups simultaneously? Absurd!
Pasta in the summertime feels neither right nor wrong. Pasta is for all times of the year. Sure, I won’t make 17 different kinds of ragù. But pasta is surprisingly still craveable even on a very exposed patio surface at the end of July. Everyone loves pasta, so it seemed like the clear answer. And like dessert, it gives me the chance to go BIG on some dishes. I’ll call these my cash cows. Lasagna. Ravioli. Mac n’ cheese.
The french onion mac n’ cheese was a must. One of my most popular and viral recipes, I knew it had to make an appearance. Actually not just an appearance, steal the show. I made a double batch of it. And I kid you not, it was the first recipe to go. There was so much mac, I didn’t have a big enough casserole and sacrificed one of my Dutch ovens to bear the load. It weighed probably 30 pounds between the sheer amount of cheese, many pounds of pasta, and all that cast iron. So good.
How did my picnic go?
Pretty good! Aside from me accidentally ejecting one of my casseroles of lasagna pinwheels onto the buffet table minutes before people arrived, then me hacking the tablecloth with scissors to extricate any last trace of red sauce stain from the table.
The weather was spectacular, which is so surprising for New York July.
I had the incredible help of my cousin Lily, both as my sous chef and as my videographer. She just moved to New York City a couple weeks ago! And I’m so beyond proud of her and excited for her. She’ll be a large part of team Ryan moving onward.
And it ended up being the most hodge-podgy of gatherings in the best way possible. My dad, brother (the pizza one), and two cousins were in town for a padel tournament, so they all made surprise appearances, also bringing along 2 semi-professional Argentinian padel players, plus one of their girlfriends. The lovely woman who produced my memorial day TODAY show segment was also there. All in all, we had a great time with plenty of pasta, spritzes, negronis, and sun.
Ciao,
Ryan
Hey! My name is Ryan Nordheimer. Welcome to my cooking and baking site. I’m a 25-year old home cook living in the East Village in New York City. Hopefully you enjoy my food through my own, tried-and-true recipes.
Ingredients (10)
Ingredients (10)
Instructions
In a large pot (non-stick works great) or Dutch oven over medium-high heat, add the butter (¼ stick), the onions (4 large), and ½ tsp kosher salt.
Add the lid and cook for 10 minutes undisturbed to help sweat the onions.
Remove the lid, reduce heat to medium, and continue cooking, stirring occasionally until the onions have reduced significantly and start to turn light brown / stick to the bottom of the pot. Reduce heat to medium-low and continue cooking and stirring frequently until the onions have turned a rich brown color, about 1.5 hours in total. If onions are sticking too much, add a bit of hot water and use that to scrape them off the bottom. Remove onions to a small bowl.
Meanwhile, toward the end of cooking the onions, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Season with a large handful of kosher salt.
Boil the pasta (1 lb) until al dente. Drain (to keep pasta from sticking together, either drizzle with some oil or keep it sitting in a few cups of the pasta water).
Preheat oven to 400 °F.
In the pot you just used for pasta again, heat over medium and add remaining butter (¾ stick) and the flour (¾ cup). Cook, whisking constantly, for 2 minutes.
Gradually whisk in the milk (4 cups). Then add the cheeses (1 lb) (reserve about 20% for topping the mac) and half of the caramelized onions. Season with salt to taste and A LOT of pepper. Then stir in the drained pasta. Taste for seasoning again.
Add to a large baking dish. Top with remaining cheese and dot with the remaining onion. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Then remove foil and continue baking until golden brown, another 20 minutes.
Garnish with chives and serve hot.
Notes
Notes
The entire mac and cheese, unbaked, can be left in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. Proceed with cooking the same way.
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