Laura Vitale Makes The Cheesiest Mac & Cheese

Hi guys , I'm Laura Vitally .

And on this episode of Laura in the kitchen , we are making the ultimate cheesiest creamiest mac and cheese you've ever had .

Perfect for Thanksgiving .

Perfect for the holiday season .

Perfect for comfort food season .

I made a lot of mac and cheese in my life .

But once you go this route , you'll never go back to any other kind .

It is truly the most delicious in the entire planet .

I've got a pot with some water and salt coming to a boil for the pasta .

I got a big pot here with nothing in it .

Yeah .

Um , adding some butter .

Come on , girlfriend , add some butter .

We're gonna start with a roux .

Now , some people do a roux .

Some people don't .

I find a roux really helps kind of the cheese sauce .

Adhere to the pasta .

Really ?

Really ?

Well , I don't add eggs to my mac and cheese .

I have done it .

Both one , I think eggs add nothing and two .

Done .

Not correctly .

You can end up with scrambled eggs in your mac and cheese .

So I don't add eggs if you add eggs , add a couple of bean eggs to this recipe .

Uh , but I don't .

So one of the most important things to making mac and cheese is this freshly grated cheese ?

A mix of it .

Ok .

I like a , I like a sharp yellow cheddar and a sharp white cheddar and I like them to be freshly grated .

Ok .

I'm doing this this way because there's a little ketcher in there .

It turned into a bowl .

Um , if you don't shred your cheese yourself and you buy pre shredded cheese , I hate to break it to you .

You're not gonna have the same consistency .

Mac and cheese .

Pre shredded cheese has like a powder substance on it that keeps it from clumping together , which keeps your mac and cheese from being a creamy emotion of cheesy goodness .

It'll be grainy and it will just will not be nearly as good .

I should not even say nearly as good .

It just won't be good .

Ok ?

Pre graded cheese is not that great .

Ok ?

The butter is melting .

It's doing great , wonderful things .

We love to see it .

I'm gonna give you a few tips here when it comes to mac and cheese because on Instagram , we've been chatting a whole lot uh this week and I've gotten so many people asking me , hey , why does my mac and cheese just not taste good ?

One of those things is this , you're not giving your roo enough time to cook .

You want that flour to have a minute to really cook out and get rid of any graininess and you want it to sort of almost melt with the butter .

Uh So you want to give that a good minute .

You want it to become foamy and wonderful .

And that's gonna be a great thickener for your best mac and cheese .

I feel about mac and cheese the way I feel the mashed potatoes .

I want all the fats .

So here I have a mixture of milk and heavy cream .

Whole milk , please .

And heavy cream gonna slowly add it whisk it in and you're just gonna cook this on medium low .

I don't like to cook my best meal too high of a temperature until it begins to thicken .

And then in the meantime , I'm just gonna keep shredding my cheeses because I need a total of about like five cups or so of cheese , which sounds like a lot and it is , but it's the ultimate .

So let me live el looking good .

I'm gonna go ahead and add some seasoning .

I just keep it very simple sometimes .

Listen , don't come for me .

Some things don't need to be seasoned to the gods .

OK ?

This is one of them .

Appreciate the luscious creaminess of it .

I'm gonna add a little bit of garlic because I always do some paprika and just a touch of nutmeg .

The nutmeg goes into pretty much every single cheese sauce that I make because you don't taste the nutmeg .

But what you do taste is the cheese sauce , tasting better and better and better as you when you add it , I'm gonna go ahead and add some softened cream cheese .

I know you're gonna have to listen to me .

This is the ultimate , OK ?

And then I'm gonna add about half of the cheese .

OK ?

And I'm gonna do it slowly in batches .

By the way , I added the pasta to the boiling water .

So that is cooking along the oven is preheated to 3 50 .

The cheese is going in , you know , it's gonna be good .

I'm just adding a little bit of a time .

That is simply divine .

I'm gonna go ahead and just add a good pinch of salt , freshly ground black pepper .

Oh That tastes so good .

So unbelievably good .

Whisk it in .

Look how just delicious and luscious the sauce is , it's gonna be dynamite .

Let me just take it off the heat .

It's on like pretty much it's off .

So that just taste .

Oh That is , that is beyond phenomenal .

It's truly incredible .

I'm gonna enjoy my past time .

Meet you back here and then put everything together .

Take your cooked and drained elbow pasta .

Now cook them very al dente and I know what you're thinking .

That's way too much sauce to noodle .

I know you're thinking that .

But I'm gonna have to just , you're gonna have to just trust the process when I tell you , this is gonna be incredible because this is very al dente .

This is probably , I wouldn't even pull it .

I wouldn't even pull it that al dente if I was just serving it with a sauce .

But because this is gonna go into the oven and bake for a while , it needs to cook further and that pasta is going to swell and then just pour it into a grease casserole dish .

Anyway , what I was saying was that pasta is going to swell .

I don't have another hand to help me .

Um and then it'll just be like the most perfect marriage you've ever seen in your entire life .

So , trust me .

Have I ever steered you wrong ?

Have I I have not .

And then we're gonna top it with the remaining cheese .

This is insanely good and I can't wait for you to eat it .

I can't wait for you to try it .

Wonderful .

If you have a really hot oven , I have a ridiculously hot oven down here .

It roast things perfectly , but sometimes it'll tend to brown the top before I'm ready for it .

So , what I'm gonna do is I'm just gonna cover it for the first like 15 minutes and then I'm gonna uncover it for the remaining like 20 because I want this to go into an oven at 3 50 for about 40 minutes or so , 40 to 45 minutes .

And then I'm gonna show you what it looks like , but just let it cool for a little bit .

Put me and over the top for that nice salty nuttiness .

And I'll show you what it looks like when she's done .

Mac and cheese baked for 45 minutes total .

It was about 20 minutes covered and 25 minutes uncovered .

I let it sit and rest for a bit and look at , I mean , it's just perfect .

It's , it's just complete perfection .

That's the only mac and cheese that I want .

You see how it was like , really soupy when we made it .

And now it's like the most perfect texture .

You can look in here .

There was nothing swimming around .

It's glorious .

It's perfect .

I'm making two pans of this for Thanksgiving because it's such a hit .

Oh , my gosh .

Good bye .

There's never been and never will be a better mac and cheese in the kitchen .

Come for the written recipe .

Hope you've enjoyed spending time with me and I will see you in the next one .

Bye .

Ah .