Cheesy homemade nachos – perfect movie night

Movie night and nachos are basically the same thing. You can't have one without at least thinking about the other. And the problem with restaurant nachos, or the bag-and-jar version you make at home, is that someone always gets stingy with the cheese. You end up with a sad pile of chips where the cheese ran out three layers in and the bottom half is completely naked. Making them yourself fixes that.

The other thing you get when you make them at home is control over what actually goes on them. I've landed on a combination that works really well: arrabbiata sauce instead of the usual plain tomato salsa, kidney beans for substance, low-moisture mozzarella that actually melts properly, and a quick guacamole that takes about two minutes to put together. It sounds like a lot of components but most of it comes from cans and it all comes together in under half an hour.

Ingredients (serves 2-3)

• 200g plain salted tortilla chips
• 1 can (400g) red kidney beans, drained
• 200g arrabbiata sauce (or any spicy tomato sauce)
• 150g low-moisture mozzarella, grated
• 1 ripe avocado
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• Juice of half a lemon
• 3 tablespoons sour cream
• Salt and pepper

How to make it

Heat your oven to 200C (180C fan).

Make the guacamole first so it has a minute to sit. Halve the avocado, remove the stone, and scoop the flesh into a bowl. Mash it with a fork until you have a rough texture, not completely smooth. Add the minced garlic, the lemon juice, salt, and a few grinds of black pepper. Mix and taste. It should be bright and a little sharp from the lemon. Set aside.

Grab a large baking tray or oven dish. Spread the tortilla chips out in a single layer, or as close to one as you can manage. Some overlap is fine, but if they're piled too high the middle ones won't get any heat. Scatter the drained kidney beans over the chips. Spoon the arrabbiata sauce over the top, distributing it reasonably evenly. Then add all the grated mozzarella in a good, generous layer over everything.

Cover the tray loosely with foil. This is important: the foil traps steam so the sauce gets hot all the way through and the cheese melts without drying out or going rubbery. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes. Check at 10 minutes. The cheese should be melted and starting to bubble slightly, and the sauce should be hot throughout.

Take it out and remove the foil. Add dollops of sour cream and the guacamole across the top. Serve immediately, straight from the tray.

A few things worth knowing

On the cheese: Low-moisture mozzarella is the kind sold as pizza mozzarella, usually in a block or pre-grated. It is not the fresh stuff in water. Fresh mozzarella has too much moisture and it goes watery in the oven instead of melting. The low-moisture version melts smoothly and gets that slight pull when you lift a chip. Once you try it this way you won't use any other cheese on nachos.

On the sauce: Arrabbiata is spicy jarred tomato sauce. Barilla makes a good one you can find in most supermarkets. The heat it brings is what lifts the whole dish. Plain tomato passata works but the nachos taste a bit flat. If you want more heat, add a pinch of chilli flakes on top of the chips before the sauce goes on.

On the chips: Plain salted tortilla chips. If you use flavoured chips like Doritos, go lighter on the sauce and cheese because the chip seasoning is already doing a lot and everything can tip into too much. Plain chips give you a clean base.

On the foil: Don't skip it. Nachos baked without foil end up with cheese that's browned on top but cold sauce underneath. The foil gives it time to heat through evenly before anything gets crispy.