Veg
By Jamie Oliver
1 hr
Not Too Tricky
serves 6
About the recipe
A Friday-night favourite, this is a twist on a comfort classic that uses broccoli in two ways – the blitzed-up stalks add colour and punch to the sauce, while you enjoy the delicate florets with your pasta. Join the green team!
Recipe From
Ingredients
1 large leek
3 cloves of garlic
400g purple sprouting or tenderstem broccoli
40g unsalted butter
½ a bunch of fresh thyme (15g)
2 tablespoons plain flour
1 litre semi-skimmed milk
450g dried macaroni
30g Parmesan cheese
150g mature Cheddar cheese
100g baby spinach
50g flaked almonds
Top Tip
Support our British cheeses! Use Mrs Kirkham’s Lancashire in place of the Cheddar here. Mrs Kirkham’s is one of the best cheeses around for melting – sprinkle on top of a baked gratin dish like this to take it to the next level.
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4.
- Trim, halve and wash the leek and peel the garlic, then finely slice with the broccoli stalks, reserving the florets for later.
- Place the sliced veg in a large casserole pan over a medium heat with the butter, then strip in the thyme leaves and cook for 15 minutes, or until softened, stirring regularly.
- Stir in the flour, followed slowly by the milk, then simmer for 10 minutes, or until thickened, stirring regularly.
- Meanwhile, cook the pasta in a large pan of boiling salted water for 5 minutes, then drain.
- Grate the Parmesan and most of the Cheddar into the sauce, and mix well. Tip into a blender, add the spinach and whiz until smooth – you may need to work in batches.
- Season to perfection with sea salt and black pepper, then stir through the pasta and broccoli florets, loosening with a splash of milk, if needed.
- Transfer to a 25cm x 35cm baking dish, grate over the remaining Cheddar and scatter over the almonds. Bake for 30 minutes, or until beautifully golden and bubbling.
I sometimes add breadcrumbs to the top for bonus crunch:
- Try blitzing garlic and fresh or dried herbs, like rosemary, oregano or thyme, into your crumbs.
- Finely grating in a little lemon zest will add a hint of freshness.
- Chuck in some nuts for extra crunch – think almonds, cashews or pine nuts.
- A couple of anchovy fillets would be delicious.
- Add a pinch of dried red chilli flakes if you like some heat.
- You could use 2 onions instead of the leek.
- Switch out the spinach for any kind of exciting fresh or frozen greens, discarding the tough stalks.
- If you're veggie, swap the Parmesan for vegetarian hard cheese.
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