Four-Cheese Sauce
A quattro formaggi sauce built on reduced cream rather than a roux, with fontina, gorgonzola, Parmesan, and mozzarella melted in off the heat. Each cheese does a different job, so the proportions matter more than the total quantity.
- Prep10 min
- Cook15 min
- Total25 min
- Serves6
AI-generated illustration
Contains:dairy
Ingredients
Method
- Grate all four cheeses before you start and leave them out to lose their chill. Once the cream is reduced this sauce comes together in under two minutes, and cold cheese seizes.
- Melt the unsalted butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat with the smashed garlic and cook 2 minutes, just to scent the butter, then lift out and discard the garlic.
- Add the heavy cream and whole milk and simmer gently 6 to 8 minutes, until reduced by about a quarter and thick enough to coat a spoon. Keep it at a lazy bubble; a hard boil will make it grainy later.
- Pull the pan off the heat and let it stop bubbling, then add the fontina cheese, gorgonzola cheese, grated Parmesan cheese, and mozzarella cheese in three handfuls, stirring each until it disappears before adding the next.
- Season with the salt, white pepper, and ground nutmeg and use immediately over hot pasta or vegetables, loosening with a splash of pasta water if it tightens as it sits.
Notes
- Gorgonzola dolce is mild; the aged piccante version will dominate everything else at this quantity.
