This recipe for Baked Pasta Bianca is one of the easiest macaroni and cheese recipes you will every make. It features a combination of 5 delicious Italian cheeses and cream to build a simple sauce that finishes in the oven. No need to make a roux or whisk up béchamel!

Two bowls of baked pasta in a creamy white sauce, dry pasta, and an oval baking dish.

(This recipe was originally published in June 2009, but was updated with new photos and content in 2021).

This recipe for baked pasta bianca with five cheeses hails from the James Beard Award-winning chefs and owners of Al Forno restaurant in Providence, RI. Joanne Killeen and her late husband George Germon shared the original recipe in one of their early cookbooks, but I have slightly adapted it by increasing the cooking time. This ensures a thick and bubbly sauce regardless of whether you use a gas or electric oven.

Pasta bianca means white pasta, and refers to the fact that it has a white sauce without the addition of tomatoes. This recipe is seriously so easy to make! You don't need to make a traditional white sauce or béchamel. You don't even need to whisk anything on the stovetop.

Heavy cream is the basis of the sauce along with a bit of broth for extra flavor, and a combination of traditional Italian cheeses. The sauce and pasta bake together to yield a perfectly cheesy, bubbly bowl of comfort that is simple enough for weeknights but elegant enough for guests. Check out this action shot of my bubbly baked pasta on Instagram.

Ingredient notes

Dry pasta, cream, chicken broth, and five types of cheese on a white marble background.

Pasta: Use any of your favorite short pasta shapes for this recipe. A few recommendations are shells, penne, and cavatappi (cellantani). For the photos in this post I used casarecce from Aldi and thought it worked great!
Five Cheeses: This recipe for baked pasta bianca uses 5 different types of Italian cheeses to create the sauce.
- Mozzarella: Use regular low-moisture mozzarella as opposed to fresh mozzarella for this recipe. Be sure to shred it yourself rather than using the pre-shredded variety, which contains anti-caking agents.
- Parmigiano-Reggiano: For the best quality, use real Parmigiano-Reggiano and not the ones simply labeled "Parmesan." Parmigiano-Reggiano is a cow's milk cheese with Protected Designation of Origin status (DOP) aged for a minimum of 1 year. If you'd like, you could substitute a good quality Grana Padano for this cheese in the recipe.
- Pecorino Romano: This is one of my personal favorites! It's a sheep's milk cheese aged between 5 and 8 months. It's a bit stronger and saltier than Parmigiano-Reggiano.
- Gorgonzola: This is a very bold and assertive Italian blue cheese. You could use another variety of blue cheese in place of it, or try mild, melting Italian fontina if you just aren't into blue cheese. Either way, this pasta bianca will not taste like blue cheese, but rather will get some flavor complexity from this pungent cheese.
- Mascarpone: Perhaps most famous as the creamy cheese used in tiramisu, mascarpone works great in savory and sweet applications.
Broth: A bit of broth or stock adds another layer of flavor to the sauce. Use chicken broth or swap it for vegetable broth to yield a vegetarian pasta bianca.

Closeup of baked pasta bianca in a blue bowl with a fork tucked into the side.

How to make it

Preheat the oven to 500°F with the oven rack in the center. Bring a large pot of water to a boil.

Combine heavy cream, broth, mozzarella, Pecorino Romano, Parmigiano-Reggiano, Gorgonzola, mascarpone, and salt in a large mixing bowl and set aside.

Generously salt the boiling water and add the pasta. Cook, stirring often, for 5 to 7 minutes (about half as long as the package says for al dente). The pasta will be parboiled and too hard to eat, but it cooks further in the oven.

Drain the pasta and add to the mixing bowl, combining thoroughly with the cheese mixture. If it seems too thick, add more broth until the pasta moves freely and is surrounded by liquid.

Transfer to individual shallow baking dishes or 1 large shallow baking dish.

An oval baking dish of pasta mixed with cream and cheeses before baking.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the pasta is very bubbly throughout and browned at the edges. Serve immediately.

Please scroll to the bottom of the post for the full recipe (in a printable recipe card) including ingredient amounts and detailed instructions.

An oval baking dish of pasta mixed with cream and cheeses after baking.

Expert tips

Because this recipe for baked pasta bianca is so simple, I do not recommend assembling the entire thing in advance. You can combine the cheeses, cream, and broth in advance and refrigerate them until needed, then just par-boil the pasta, combine and bake.

This recipe serves 4 to 6 as a main dish or 6 to 8 as a first course. In the photos I have made a half recipe in a slightly smaller baking dish than I would have for the full recipe.

Don't stress if you don't have all 5 of the cheeses listed in the recipe. I have provided some alternatives in the Ingredient Notes section above, or you can try any of your other favorite cheeses using the same process to create your own unique variation.

You definitely want the baking dish to be on the shallow side and the pasta and cream mixture to be relatively shallow in the dish. If it's filled very deep it will take longer to reduce and thicken.

The original recipe stated to only bake for 8 to 10 minutes but I find that is not nearly enough time to get a super thick and bubbly sauce. I have increased it for more uniform results across all types of ovens. If you want to bake it less, that's fine too, but you may have more residual sauce and it may not be bubbly all the way in the center if using a large baking dish.

Some of the pasta pieces that float on the top will get crusty. This is great! When serving the pasta bianca, however, I often like to give it a little stir to help the cheese sauce coat those dryer pieces, and then scoop into serving bowls or plates.

A blue bowl of baked pasta in white sauce next to a baking dish of pasta.

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