You just have to be extra careful when it’s time to add the pasta to the sauce, because it will tend to fall out of the strainer in one big clump, and that could make a big mess (I speak from experience, and yes, hot cheese sauce burns like a mofo). In that case, just let the pasta sit in the strainer or colander you used to drain it, and don’t add the tablespoon of butter to it (add it to the sauce, instead). At the end of the day, one more bowl for each thing you cooked adds up. Now, if you absolutely don’t want to use another dish and just want to serve the mac and cheese in the pot, I get you. But I mention it because I don’t want to be responsible for ruining your non-stick cookware. This could be an old wives’ tale, I have no idea-it’s never happened to me, and I boil long pasta in this awesome pasta pot all the time. But if you’re using a pot with a non-stick bottom, you may want to wait and add the salt after the water comes to a boil, because supposedly the undissolved salt sitting on the bottom of the pan as the water heats up can make marks on the non-stick surface. Now, I add the salt as soon as I put the water in, because otherwise I forget, every time. This is your only chance to season the macaroni itself (the rest of the flavor will be on the outside of the pasta), so go ahead and put a spoonful of kosher or table salt in there. Adding salt to pasta water should just be automatic, no matter what you’re making. I can’t believe that Kraft doesn’t tell you to do this. My first trick is to add salt to the water before cooking the pasta.

How to make mac n cheese thicker