Hari Cameron – Creativity within Boundaries

So you can get fresh pasta from so many different makers right now. Even if you don't have a home extruder, it's pretty easy to get fresh pasta. So I think you start with the pasta. If you're using dry pasta, that's fine. There's a place for that as well. Next thing I think is your cheese selection. I think that you need some depth in your cheese. So using a couple of different cheeses, depending on if it's white or yellow. I think Gruyere as some really nice nuttiness. I think Fontina adds some depth there also. Really understanding your cheeses, white cheddar of course and different ages. It's kind of a classic. And then I don't think flour is needed. I think that if you are a home cook and you use sour salt, it's called sodium citrate, you can make any cheese into the perfect melting consistency. Like Velveeta. The perfect mac and cheese cheese. So you use 9 to 12 percent of that of total weight of cheese.

I think you need some acid in there. Some people use mustard as their acid, some people use an alcoholic cider. Kind of like doing a fondue play. Or I think that using a beer would be interesting. So when you can add a little acidity to help cut the fat, the mustard is nice because it adds that kind of spice as well. Tabasco is nice. Tabasco is a vinegar based hot sauce. It has that kind of brightness that you're looking for. Nutmeg would make it more, you know, the Italian Bechamel.

Pasta is like a nicely dressed salad. You don't want too much dressing. You want it to evenly coated, understanding the consistency of your sauce and you don't need to bake it or you could bake it. One of the best mac and cheese you can make is Cacio e Pepe. I think that if you have some parmesan, if you have olive oil or butter, pasta, water and black pepper and a good pasta, if your emulsification technique is good, you can make it beautiful. It's not mac and cheese, but it's so simple.