Aligot | French Mashed Potatoes with Stretchy Cheese

Take the cheese out of the refrigerator and let it come to room temperature. Grate it through the finest holes or slice it paper-thin. Large pieces will clump in the mash instead of melting. Crush the garlic.

Drain the potatoes and, once they are cool enough to handle, slip off the skins. Pass them through a potato ricer or the finest holes of a grater directly into the pot. Do not use a food processor: it breaks down the starch and turns the mash into a sticky paste.

Set the pot over the lowest heat and add the cheese in three or four batches, stirring forcefully with a wooden spoon in a figure-eight motion after each addition. For the first few minutes, the mixture will break into strings; after 10 minutes, it will form one mass that stretches from the spoon without breaking. Keep going until the mash stretches, even if your arm gets tired, then serve immediately. It will firm up and stop stretching if left to stand.