Why Did My Macaroni Cheese Look Scrambled? | Ask Nigella.com (2024)

Our answer

Nigella's Macaroni Cheese (from NIGELLA EXPRESS) is a quick dish where the sauce can be made in the time it takes to cook the pasta. The sauce is a combination of evaporated milk and cheese, with eggs that act as a thickener for the sauce. The pasta and sauce are cooked for 15 minutes in a hot oven, just to make the top golden.

Eggs are quite heat sensitive and it is possible that they became overcooked and a little scrambled. When you are making the macaroni cheese and add the sauce to the pasta in the pan, make sure that the pan itself is off the heat and that the sauce only warms through in the residual heat of the pan and pasta, rather like if you were making a pasta carbonara. Don't be tempted to put the pan back on the heat. When you bake the dish, make sure that the oven is thoroughly preheated so that the top of the pasta turns golden quickly, which reduces the risk of the rest of the sauce becoming overcooked.