Mac and Cheese Delicious Soup

I found this recipe and then made it awesome! It is also done in under 30 minutes, so that isn't terrible either!

1 1/3 c. uncooked elbow macaroni
1/2 pound spicy or mild uncooked italian sausage (or without for you non meat eaters)
Olive oil
1/2 sweet onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1/2 c. flour (or gluten free flour for you gluten free eaters)
4 c. chicken broth
1 1/2 c. milk
3 c. cheese - mix what you want, I used colby jack, but you can get fancy
1/4 c. white wine
Kosher salt and Ground pepper to taste - you want to flavor each level
1/2 c. croutons (flavored or not) beaten to a pulp

1. Bring a medium sauce pan to a boil. Add the macaroni and salt and cook till almost al dente. Drain and rise. Save 1/4 c. of the the pasta water.

2. Chop the onion and the carrot. If you have a food processor, use it, you won't tear up cutting the onions. But if you want more of a hearty taste, chop it yourself. Cavemen did not have food processors.

3. Grate the cheese. You can get fancy here and add all sorts of cheese, because cheese is awesome and makes everything taste better. Be creative, I wasn't, I just used colby jack. It was still great. Also, the original recipe called for 1 1/2 cup, but apparently that wasn't enough for me, and the 3 cups was not over powering and seemed like the perfect amount.

4. In a 4 quart saucepan, add about 1/4 c olive oil (just guessing here, I just poured in a healthy amount) and cook the veggies until soft (4 to 5 minutes), flavor with salt and pepper, half way through add the white wine. Also here, you should pour yourself a glass of the white wine, because if you are not going to drink it, you shouldn't cook with it. Plus you just chopped a lot of vegetables and deserve the reward. So cook with some, drink some more.  Add the sausage and brown. If the pan gets dry, add more olive oil or wine. Once the sausage is cooked, add the flour, stirring for 2 minutes. Gradually stir in the chicken broth and remaining pasta water and bring to a boil. Stir the whole time to deglaze the pan and thicken the stock. Bring to a boil and cook for 6 to 7 minutes so it thickens.

5. Beat the croutons. It is fun. More so if you've had a bad day and you can pretend it is your bosses/spouses/coworkers/random persons face. We all need an outlet, even if it is stale bread. And take another sip of wine, or gulp, which ever you prefer.

6. Reduce heat to low, should be thick and smell like meat (and if you don't eat meat, the original recipe didn't have meat, so don't include it, but then you should also reduce the amount of flour to 1/4 c., and if you don't like sausage, I think bacon would be great too, which was my original plan, until I saw the sausage at the grocery store). Add in the macaroni, milk, cheese and salt and pepper and stir until everything melts. Let it set on low to barely there heat for 15-20 minutes. Very low heat, you can even turn the heat off and let it sit there. It will thicken and become glorious (I used this time to clean the dishes, but leave them there if you have someone else to clean them and just enjoy your wine and accomplishment). Turn the heat up after the 15-20 minutes, bring to a quick boil and then turn off heat. Sounds strange, but it made a huge difference.

7. Dish out and garnish with beaten up croutons.

8. Enjoy with more wine.