Salt your pasta water! Your pasta water should literally be as salty as the sea! This means you’re going to add a moderate amount of salt to the boiling water before cooking the pasta. Fear not, however, most of this salt will get left behind in the water after you drain the cooked noodles. Cooking the pasta in salted water is going to give your pasta tons of extra flavor.

Cook the pasta just until al dente and not a second longer. If the directions on the box of pasta suggest boiling it for 8-10 minutes, I set my timer for 7 minutes and start testing the pasta after 7 minutes of cooking. This ensures that you can pull the noodles off the heat and drain them as soon as they are al dente. This will help avoid overcooking the noodles and ending up with a mushy mess!

You can switch up the cheese to fit your personal tastes or use whatever you have on hand. However, I recommend using a flavorful cheese in the base of the cheese sauce. Cabot’s Seriously Sharp Cheddar is one of my faves. Shredded Parmesan works great too. You could sub regular whole milk or part-skim mozzarella, fontina, or even Havarti for any of the cheeses listed in this recipe. Just keep the ratios the same so the texture is similar!