Mac And Cheese Is The Underrated Topping Your Baked Potato Is Craving

A baked potato is one of the culinary world's most gloriously expansive canvases upon which to paint a plethora of delights. After one thousand years in the oven (or an hour at 350 Fahrenheit that just feels like forever), it's satisfying and soothing with little more than a pat or two of salted butter. And a baked potato is also always poised to transform into a veritable chili bowl, a bacon, chive, and sour cream vehicle, or a broccoli boat. Mac and cheese is similar, in that it's also packed with nostalgia, and you can upgrade it, too, in all kinds of ways. And when you put the two together it's a five-alarm comfort food overload.

Mac and cheese is the perfect baked potato topping for a few reasons. For one, it's a terrific way to use up any small amounts of your leftover creamy pasta that might not amount to enough for a meal. It's also easy to whip up with the instant stuff, or spotlight your finest scratch-made batch. You can even microwave the potato in a pinch.

At first glance, this pairing might seem like the heavy pasta pies you'll see at the pizzeria from time to time. But, baked potatoes and mac and cheese actually complement one another. The pasta-pizza combo is too similar in composition (each with its flour base) to do anything better than overwhelm. But the baked potato's light, fluffy interior and crisp jacket are actually a suitable contrast to the springy, creamy mac and cheese.

Cheese, of course, is already one of the baked potato's most popular toppings, so the mac component here really just goes a little farther while bringing a more dynamic texture to the root vegetable. The classic elbow variety, with its sharp cheddar-based coat, plays marvelously here. Shells and a white cheese, or even a multi-dairy baked variety are also terrific options. And, since you're already going literally over the top (of the baked potato), you can also always add a touch of yet another kind of compatible cheese for a spectacularly overstuffed spud.