Can I Make The Macaroni Cheese Ahead?

Our answer

Nigella's Macaroni Cheese (from NIGELLA EXPRESS is a quick version of macaroni cheese where the sauce ingredients are simply blitzed together in a liquidizer (or mixed together by hand if you are grating the cheese). This makes it very quick to cook.

The main problem with pasta dishes such as macaroni cheese is that the pasta will tend to absorb the sauce as it stands, which means that if you make it in advance and then bake it, it can become dry and heavy. As this version is so quick to make, we have not tried assembling it in advance. However, we suspect that the best way forward would be to cook the pasta and once it has cooked, drain it, rinse it well with cold running water and then leave to drain for a few minutes. Toss the cooled, drained pasta with a little oil (a neutral oil or a mild olive oil), put it in a greased baking dish, cover and refrigerate. Make the sauce and leave it in a covered container in the fridge. Just before baking, give the sauce a whisk and pour it over the pasta. Cover the dish with foil and bake at 200c/180 Fan/400F for 30-40 minutes, until piping hot in the centre, then uncover, increase the oven to 220c/200Fan/425F and bake for another 15 minutes, until the top is golden and bubbling. However, please note that as we have not tried this ourselves, we are unable to guarantee the results.