Cauliflower mac 'n' cheese

Name: Cauliflower mac 'n' cheese
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 6
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: 15g unsalted butter; 1 leek; 1 stick of celery; optional: ½ a bulb of fennel; 1 small head of cauliflower (600g); 450g dried pasta; 1 tablespoon plain flour; 500ml semi-skimmed milk; 1 teaspoon English mustard; 100g mixed cheese, such as Cheddar, Parmesan, feta, halloumi; 100g stale bread; 2 cloves of garlic; optional: a few sprigs of fresh herbs, such as thyme or oregano; olive oil

With crispy garlic breadcrumbs

Vegetarian

45 mins

Not Too Tricky

serves 6

About the recipe

I’ve written this recipe to serve 6, but it’s easy to double up if you want to get into the batch-cooking vibe and get an extra meal or two in the freezer, or if you want to safely drop a dish on a neighbour’s doorstep (just don't forget to back away once you've rung the bell. Social distancing, people!). You can get this prepped in the morning, ready to bake up for lunch or dinner. Happy days.

nutrition per serving

Calories

24%

Fat

17%

Saturates

30%

Sugars

11%

Salt

18%

Protein

44%

Carbs

29%

Fibre

of an adult’s reference intake

Recipe From

Jamie: Keep Cooking and Carry On

By Jamie Oliver

Watch the show Get the recipes

Ingredients

15g unsalted butter

1 leek

1 stick of celery

optional: ½ a bulb of fennel

1 small head of cauliflower (600g)

450g dried pasta

1 tablespoon plain flour

500ml semi-skimmed milk

1 teaspoon English mustard

100g mixed cheese, such as Cheddar, Parmesan, feta, halloumi

100g stale bread

2 cloves of garlic

optional: a few sprigs of fresh herbs, such as thyme or oregano

olive oil

Top Tip

Two of my girls are gluten-free and it’s easy to swap gluten-free pasta and flour into this recipe. Either switch out the bread for a gluten-free alternative or leave out altogether. You could always sprinkle over some seeds instead.

Method

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4.
Put a large shallow ovenproof casserole pan on a medium heat with the butter.
Trim, halve, wash and slice the leek and add to the pan. Stir regularly while you trim, slice and add the celery, then trim, chop and add the fennel, if using.
Break the cauliflower into florets, then cut into 2cm-thick slices and finely slice the stalk and any nice leaves. Add the stalk and leaves to the pan and cook for 10 minutes, or until soft but not coloured, stirring regularly.
Meanwhile, cook the pasta in a large pan of boiling salted water for 8 minutes (5 if using macaroni). Reserving a mugful of starchy cooking water, drain the pasta and pour into a 25cm x 35cm baking dish (or divide between smaller ones), along with the cauliflower florets.
Stir the flour into the veg pan for 30 seconds, then gradually pour in the milk, stirring all the time, followed by 500ml of water. Simmer for 5 minutes, then stir in the mustard and season with sea salt and black pepper.
Let the sauce blip away until thickened while you coarsely grate the cheese.
Stir the cheese into the sauce, then blitz until smooth with a hand blender, or in batches in a food processor.
Pour over the pasta and cauliflower florets then, if you need to loosen it, add a little reserved pasta water – the sauce will thicken up as it bakes.
Blitz your stale bread into crumbs in the processor (or smash up in a clean tea towel). Peel and grate the garlic. Pick the herb leaves, if using, and mix it all together with 1 tablespoon of olive oil.
Scatter the crumbs over the pasta, grating over more cheese, if you’ve got it, then bake for 30 minutes, or until golden and bubbling.

Use whatever pasta you’ve got, penne, fusilli, or even a mixture.
Hero broccoli or squash instead of cauliflower, if that’s what you’ve got.
You can swap out leeks for onions.
When it comes to cheese, use whatever you’ve got, this is a great recipe for using up odds and ends.
On the herb front, thyme, oregano, marjoram or chopped rosemary would all be delicious, or even a pinch of dried herbs.
No English mustard? No problem, use Dijon mustard instead.

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