Cheesy white sauce pasta

Fill a big pot with water and bring it to a boil. Never make the pasta ahead of time; add the hot pasta to the sauce straight after draining so it does not stick together.

Add half a cup of the two cups of milk to the grated cheese, so the cheese softens before it goes into the sauce.

In a nonstick pan on very low heat melt the butter without letting it brown.

Keeping the heat low, add the flour and stir immediately with a spoon; it may clump at first but becomes smooth. This mixture of flour and fat is a roux.

Cook the roux on low heat about two minutes so the flour cooks and the sauce does not taste chalky, without letting it brown.

Swap the spoon for a whisk, add the cold milk a little at a time and whisk vigorously after each addition; adding it all at once leaves lumps.

Once the sauce is smooth grate in the nutmeg, add the black pepper and finally the salt, stir and let it simmer on low heat.

Add a tablespoon of salt to the boiling water, then the pasta, and stir. Never add oil to the pasta water, it stops the sauce coating the pasta.

Boil the pasta about eight minutes or per the package, stirring from time to time and checking from the seven minute mark; it is done when it tastes a bit chewy but soft.

Drain the pasta and do not rinse it; the starch on the surface is what the sauce clings to.

The sauce is done when it coats the back of the spoon and a line drawn through it holds.

Take the sauce off the heat and add the cheese, so the sauce does not curdle and the cheese does not turn rubbery or stringy; mix until it all dissolves.

Put it back on low heat, mix, add the pasta and stir for only a minute.

Switch off the heat and stand covered five minutes.

Sprinkle with mixed herbs or oregano and more grated cheese if you like.