Today marks my first day of marriage. As this is my wedding week (which leads directly into three weeks of honeymoon abroad), these next few challenges will be truncated and minimized to just a brief overview in the series of pictures that may never be fleshed out with descriptions in the future.

In the first of this series will be a deep dish mac & cheese pizza that is stuffed with tomato and basil. To begin, the mac & cheese is made using basic elbow pasta for a classic look and texture.

The creamy, cheesy aspect is a matter of adding in the right amount of butter, milk, mozzarella and cheddar.

Many taste tests are done to ensure the mac & cheese is worth a nibble all by its onesie. A cast-iron is used to build the pizza.

In the construction, a base of macaroni is pilled onto a thicker style dough so as to support the macaroni that will be piled on. A layer of macaroni is followed by a sprinkling of chiffonade basil and halved San Marzano tomatoes. A final layer of pasta and cheese follows with a brief oven session that kisses the dish with light browning.

Using a spatula along the firm, crisp crust, this pizza can easily be removed before the cutting begins.

The resulting pizza is absolute hedonism with a soft punch of juicy tomato and basil leaves.

A bottle of Etna Rosso is selected to pair and its just what is needed to cut through all the richness brought on by the cheesiness and thicker crust.

This fusion of comfort food seems like the tame kind of thisiswhyyourfat cuisine that would be worth the energy expended in its production. In my opinion, it’s not. Thankfully, these challenges do not bear the weight of regret despite any hiccups. And despite the inferiority to the classics being amalgamated here, the pizza itself was worth devouring in full.