The secret ingredient for the ultimate mac and cheese costs almost nothing

By Karla Walsh, CNN

(CNN) — Follow the instructions on the box, and your mac and cheese will be ready to devour in about 10 minutes.

Invest five minutes more — and subtract about a dozen ingredients — and you can have what award-winning cookbook author Samin Nosrat considers a copycat recipe that will delight both kids and the young at heart.

“Think of this pasta as the elegantly understated aunt to a box of mac and cheese,” Nosrat wrote in her new cookbook, “Good Things: Recipes and Rituals to Share With People You Love.” After coaching us to master the basics of cooking with “Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat,” whether you chose her cookbook or her Netflix show, the Oakland, California-based food writer is back with 125 new recipes in her latest release, including her take on classic mac and cheese.

“Combining ricotta, Parmesan, and a little bit of pasta cooking water makes a rich, creamy sauce that is far greater than the sum of its parts,” she said.

Nosrat clued us in about the key ingredient that makes the sauce silky and sneakily budget-friendly: starchy pasta water.

“Normally, when you try to melt cheese directly into pasta without making a béchamel sauce first, your cheese will break,” Nosrat told me. “The fat will separate from the protein, and then you get a greasy mess instead of sauce.”

The pasta water thickens and emulsifies the cheese mixture, helping it evolve from watery or greasy to rich and glossy, all for the cost of 1 cup of water. Bonus: If you salt the water before adding the noodles (Nosrat asks for a palmful of salt per pot), it will help season your dish.

When you pair starchy pasta water with already-creamy ricotta and salty, umami-rich grated Parmesan, stir this all together with cooked noodles for “an incredible shortcut,” Nosrat said. “You don’t need a million steps in order to make it, and the sauce coats the pasta in this very satisfying, creamy way. It’s really just about as easy as making boxed mac and cheese!”

Nosrat’s recipe remix is also “endlessly adaptable,” she wrote, based on your preferences and the ingredients you have handy.

Truly any pasta cut can shine. Your best bet is a short shape though, she said: “Things like penne rigate, rigatoni or any short pasta with a hole in there for some of the cheese or the peas to fall in is amazing. Anything with peas is friendly to eat with orecchiette, because the peas will nestle into the little ears.”

As for the cheeses to feature in this recipe, Grana Padano, aged Asiago or Pecorino Romano are suitable alternatives to the punchy Parmesan. Small-curd cottage cheese (“one of my breakfast love affair foods,” Nosrat admitted) is a stellar substitute for ricotta if you prefer.

Fresh or frozen peas are a classic and subtly sweet vegetable boost. However, depending on the season and your produce stock, feel free to tag in bite-size broccoli or baby broccoli, sliced asparagus, peeled fava beans, sliced snap or snow peas, and/or corn kernels.

No matter which variation you try, Nosrat said she hopes that this recipe will be at least one good thing — the theme of her new cookbook — you can look forward to this week. And it’s not just this one dish.

“Looking for something to delight in and to take pleasure in, and to be able to turn around and share that with the people around you — if we all did that, then the positive impact would multiply,” she told me.

One easy way to spread delight and connect on a deeper level with those in your circle is gathering at the same table, Nosrat said. Comfort foods such as this easy, cheesy mac are ideal to set the scene since they are flavorful but not fussy, and undeniably nostalgic.

Creamy One-Pot Pasta With Ricotta and Peas

Serves 4 to 6

Total cooking time: About 15 minutes

Ingredients

● Kosher salt

● 1 pound dried pasta (any shape is fine)

● 1 ½ cups shelled peas (fresh or frozen)

● 1 pound whole-milk ricotta, drained

● 1 cup finely grated Parmesan, plus more for serving

● Freshly ground black pepper

● Large handful of basil leaves

Instructions

• Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook until it’s nearly al dente. One to 3 minutes before the pasta is done cooking according to the package instructions, add the peas to the water and cook until the pasta is al dente and the peas are barely cooked. Reserving 1 cup of the cooking water, drain the pasta and peas into a colander.
• To finish, return the empty pot to the stove. Add the ricotta and Parmesan. Stir to combine, then add the pasta and peas and stir vigorously to coat. Over low heat, add the cooking water, a little at a time to thin the sauce as needed. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper, then tear the basil leaves into the pasta and stir to bring everything together.
• Serve immediately with more Parmesan.

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Recipe adapted from “Good Things: Recipes and Rituals to Share With People You Love” by Samin Nosrat. Copyright © 2025 by Samin Nosrat. All rights reserved. Published by Penguin Random House. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.