This Is Martha Stewart’s Secret Ingredient for a Perfect Mac and Cheese

We owe a lot to professional kitchen goddess Martha Stewart. She taught us how to collect jadeite, the best way to make pierogi and how to clean hands that stink like garlic. That was before Martha’s documentary gifted us more whimsical ideas, like starting a garden or building a Turkey Hill-inspired chicken coup.

Fans will be in her debt once again, because she leaked the secret ingredient for perfect mac and cheese.

What is Martha’s secret ingredient?

In this Instagram reel of a TV clip, she reveals that the secret ingredient for perfect mac and cheese is tomato paste, which most of us have never thought to add. The tip comes from her mother, Martha Kostyra, aka “Big Martha.” The culinary matriarch made several appearances in her daughter’s shows before she passed away in 2007.

In the clip, we see that her mac and cheese recipe contains 4 tablespoons of tomato paste, added to the milk right at the start. Once the tomato paste is whisked with the milk and spices over medium-low heat, the cheese (a combo of cheddar and Swiss) is added to create the sauce—no roux required.

You know tomatoes and dairy work well together—think of a grilled cheese with a fat slice of tomato or a creamy pasta bake with cherry tomatoes and feta. The reason they’re so complementary is that dairy has a primarily fatty, savory flavor while tomato (which is a fruit, after all) adds a balancing acidity and brightness. The slight sweetness of the concentrated tomato paste helps cut through the richness of a pan of mac and cheese, lending more complexity to the final dish.

What else makes Martha’s mac and cheese special?

You can find Martha’s family recipe on her website. In addition to the tomato paste, the recipe also calls for 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper to add the slightest bit of heat, much as the tomato paste adds that welcome acidity. (You may have noticed, Big Martha says on the show that she doesn’t use cayenne in her recipe. That ingredient still shows up in what Martha Stewart’s website calls “Mrs. Kostyra’s Mac and Cheese.”) Instead of bread crumbs, Martha simply tops the dish with a few dots of butter, and she likes to add plenty of black pepper as well.

There’s one more unconventional ingredient in this recipe: sour cream, for serving. You know, in case there’s not enough dairy on the plate already!