Cheat's Mac'n'Cheese

The base of pretty much any homemade mac and cheese (especially stove top) is usually a cheese sauce or bechamel sauce. This is made by cooking flour in butter and using the resulting roux (pronounced rue) to thicken milk which cheese is then melted into. This is a cheat because it avoids that entirely and uses sour cream and the starch left on your pasta to get a good sauce.

Ingredients:

2 lbs of ground spicy sausage
2 lbs of pasta (I recommend either macaroni or rotini)
1 lb of cheddar cheese, shredded
1 lb of sour cream*
4 C of milk

Directions:

Brown the ground sausage until cooked through. You can use links, but Laura hates the casings so I just use the sausage meat. I recommend doing this in 1 lb portions, otherwise you could pull too much heat out of your pan and you will end up with boiled sausage which just is not as good. (Alternatively, you could entirely skip this if you don't want sausage in your mac'n'cheese.)

Cook your pasta according to the package instructions and drain it thoroughly, but DO NOT RINSE IT, the starch that it still clinging to those noodles is vital in making a good sauce later.

Stir everything in to the still warm pasta. If you move quickly, and have everything ready to go, it should all melt in and form a smooth, creamy sauce. If it has cooled down, put the pot over a low heat while you stir. If the sauce is a little too liquid, just keep stirring, the sauce will thicken as the starch expands.

*If you use a 16 oz/1 lb container, that is a 2 cup container, you can use that to measure the milk so it makes fewer dishes.