Cheating is all about knowing which corners to cut, and
which packets and tins to buy. If it’s
good enough for Delia, it’s good enough for me!
This is one of my favourite cheat ingredients, and this
particular brand one of the better ones.
To be truthful, I haven’t made a cheese sauce in more years than I care
to remember, not since these tubs of good cheese sauce hit the shelves in the
90’s!
Cheese sauce is a particularly useful ingredient. I always use it to top lasagne; when you’ve
spent an hour making the meat sauce, making a cheese sauce can be enough to tip
you over the edge! This is the shortcut
to make. No-cook pasta sheets are
another handy shortcut. Back in the day
I’d have one pan going to make the meat sauce, another cooking lasagne sheets
and a third for the cheese sauce. By the
time I’d done all the washing up I often couldn’t face eating it!
Cauliflower cheese is a favourite, and with a tub of
cheese sauce it’s next to no work at all.
I cook the cauliflower (and often broccoli for a bit of colour) briefly
before decanting into an ovenproof dish, topping with the cheese sauce and some extra grated cheddar and finally popping it into a hot oven to finish.
A tub of cheese sauce can also make very short work of mac
and cheese, especially if you have some leftover bacon or cooked ham hanging
around. Then it’s nothing more than a matter
of thinning out the cheese sauce with some milk and a quick assembly job.
This is another one of my favourite cheat sauces. Glorious Barefoot in Bologna, a really tasty sausage
ragu. I often use it as a sauce with
good chilled ravioli or tortellini. 
