Cheesy but easy: Learn how to make Ina Garten's Overnight Mac and Cheese

“How easy it that?” “How simple is that?” When I hear those questions, I think of Ina Garten.

The Food Network host and cookbook author has posed them plenty of times on her cooking segments while demonstrating a recipe or cooking technique. Garten not only makes things look effortless but also shows you how and why they’re easy.

But all that aside, even the much-loved and trusted Garten “sometimes finds cooking stressful,” she reveals in her latest cookbook, “Go-to Dinners” (Clarkson Potter, out now). It features uncomplicated dishes that make dinner a breeze.

The collection was inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led Garten to rethink how she approached dinner. That rethinking led to some easy-to-prepare dishes, many of which you can make ahead and freeze. There’s even a recipe for Hot Dogs in Puff Pastry and Hasselback Kielbasa. “The pandemic has had a huge impact on what I think of as dinner,” Garten writes, “and what I look for in ‘go-to’ recipes.”

The book is divided into sections: drinks and appetizers, breakfast for dinner, light dinners, family dinners, vegetables and side dishes and desserts. Garten shares strategies for dishes such as Tuscan White Bean Soup, Creamy Chicken Thighs with Lemon & Thyme, Overnight Mac and Cheese (a prep-ahead dish) and Asparagus Cacio e Pepe.

This is Garten’s 13th cookbook in the Barefoot Contessa Cookbook lineup. Here’s her mac-and-cheese recipe.

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Overnight Mac and Cheese

Overnight Mac and Cheese from Ina Garten’s new cookbook “Go-to Dinners.”

Serves: 6 / Prep time: 20 minutes (plus overnight refrigerator time) / Total time: 1 hour

This mac-and-cheese recipe is a perfect prep-ahead dish. The pasta is undercooked and mixed with all the cream and cheese ingredients and then refrigerated overnight. This step skips the need to make a roux as the pasta absorbs the cream mixture and expands.

• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 12 ounces cavatappi pasta
• 4½ cups heavy cream
• 3 cups grated Gruyère cheese, divided (8 ounces)
• 1½ cups grated sharp white cheddar, such as Cabot, divided (4 ounces)
• ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 3 tablespoons melted unsalted butter, plus extra for the dish
• 2½ cups fresh white breadcrumbs

A day before you plan to serve, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add 2 tablespoons kosher salt and the pasta and cook for four minutes. (It will be undercooked.). Drain but don’t rinse the pasta and set aside.

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, combine the heavy cream, 1½ cups of Gruyère cheese, ¾ cup of white cheddar, nutmeg, 1 tablespoon salt and 1½ teaspoons pepper. Stir in the hot pasta into the cream mixture, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 24 hours. The pasta will absorb the cream and expand.

When ready to bake, allow the pasta mixture to sit at room temperature for about one hour. (You can also microwave it for four minutes.) Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Butter a 9-by-13-by-2-inch baking dish. Stir the pasta mixture well, transfer it to the prepared dish, and spread it evenly. Combine the remaining 1½ cups Gruyère and ¾ cup cheddar cheese and sprinkle evenly on top. Combine the breadcrumbs and three tablespoons of melted butter and sprinkle evenly over the cheese. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, rotating halfway through, until golden brown. Serve hot.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Cheesy but easy: Learn how to make Ina Garten’s Overnight Mac and Cheese