Food - Drink
Ina Garten's Game-Changing Tip For The Creamiest Mac And Cheese
By AUTUMN SWIERS
Kids and adults both love mac and cheese, and even classy celebrity chef Ina Garten agrees that a simple bowl of mac is “the ultimate comfort food.” According to The Barefoot Contessa, the key to nailing a perfect mac is to let the pasta soak up the sauce the day before you bake it.
Garten adds that her method does not require béchamel sauce, a combination of flour, milk, and butter emulsified in a saucepan. First, she cooks the pasta, then adds it to a mixture of heavy cream, grated cheese, and nutmeg, and places it in the refrigerator to rest for roughly 24 hours.
The next day, Garten bakes the well-soaked, expanded pasta in a buttered casserole dish, sprinkled with more cheese and breadcrumbs. In addition to foregoing the béchamel, skipping the pasta cooking step and simply soaking the noodles cuts down even more on prep time.