Macaronis Au Gratin Va Va Va Voom

My daughter chose this for her birthday supper. She chooses a different mac and cheese recipe and a fall salad almost every year for her birthday. This one was excellent and very creamy. It gives you several choices and I chose a small shell macaroni, Gruyere Cheese, whole baby bella mushrooms, and parsley and used the option of pink peppercorns since I had them on hand. The pink peppercorns looked so pretty on top but if you got more than one in a mouthful they were a little overwhelming. The mushroom caps are placed on the cheese, shallots, part of the garlic, pasta, and pasta water mixture whole, then butter is placed in the caps before baking. Finally more of the chopped garlic is sprinkled over.