In fact, since we’ll be putting this whole dish in the oven (i.e., further cook time), take your noodles off the heat a couple minutes earlier than you normally would. You don’t want your noodles too chewy (and definitely not crunchy), but you really don’t want them mushy.Ĭheck the cook times on the packaging, and start taste-testing them a few minutes before the recommended cook time is up. We like our noodles al dente, which means just tender but with some spring and resistance to the bite. It helps bring out the flavor of the pasta. Instead, use a generous amount of salt in the water. You want those little things holding as much cheese on them as humanly (noodlely?) possible. Problem is, that’ll grease up your noodles, which actually makes it tough for them to hold onto the cheese sauce. You may have heard to use a bit of olive oil in the water when cooking noodles. Sure, you can boil quicker if there’s less water in the pot, but pasta likes a little room to breathe. Now, boiling noodles-how hard is that, right? Not hard, but there are some things it helps to be aware of if you want your pasta to turn out as awesome as possible. Once you’ve chosen your pasta, we’ll get to the cooking

But to be honest, we really like to keep it traditional, so our favorite is a nice thick elbow macaroni. Something like cavatappi, small shells or rotini. Go with a noodle that’s got enough texture to grab your cheese sauce and hold onto it like the treasure it is. So a great first step is to choose what kind of pasta you’d like to use for your mac and cheese. Homestyle mac and cheese all starts with the noodles.

How to make mac n cheese recipe