Smoked Gouda Mornay Sauce

Just a smoked Gouda mornay sauce was not the original plan for tonight's recipe. I had bought a pre-cut butternut squash the other day and wanted to make a butternut mornay sauce, but that didn't happen. Here's why...

With the new pup, getting time in to cook dinner and to clean up after is slim, especially when it's just me and Dan's at work. I had some store-bought fresh tortellini, the ingredients for a mornay and the squash. To save time and not have to clean so many dishes, I looked up some information about cooking a squash in the microwave. I was definitely skeptic about the directions I read for this method, it seemed to me the squash would be dry, which it was. The directions just called me to place the squash cut-side down on a plate and microwave for 4-5 minutes increments until soft, and then puree it. It came out thick and dry and none of my blenders (I tried a few) would puree it, not even with a bit of added milk to loosen it up. That went down the disposal...

I figured in case that didn't pan out that I would at least still have my mornay sauce for my tortellini, so something homemade and all my efforts weren't wasted. I winged the sauce, so below are my estimates for measurements. I do recommend adding more milk than I did, maybe 2 full cups rather than the 1 and 1/4 I added. The sauce thickens up after cooking and it got pretty thick, so more milk may keep it a little more thinned out.

Smoked Gouda Mornay Sauce

3 tbsp. butter
3 tbsp. flour
2 cups milk
pinch of white ground pepper
pinch of garlic powder
pinch of nutmeg
1 cup shredded smoked Gouda cheese

1. In a saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter. Whisk in the flour and let cook for about 2 minutes.
2. Slowly add milk (1/2 cup at a time), and whisk constantly to mix. Cook for 4 minutes, whisking constantly.
3. Whisk in spices.
4. Remove from heat and whisk in cheese.
5. Serve over pasta.

The sauce really thickened up after this