• 850ml milk
  • 50g plain flour
  • 50g butter , plus 1 tbsp 1 tsp Dijon mustard
  • 100g extra mature cheddar , grated -- I'd actually double this
  • egg yolk
  • 25-50g blue cheese
  • ½ tsp finely grated nutmeg
  • 250g penne (wholemeal)
  • A MASSIVE cauliflower (like as big as your head), cut into florets
  • 750g spinach
  • 25g toasted pine nuts (if your all FANCY and stuff)
  • mozarella for topping
  • tomato sauce:
  • 4 garlic cloves , 3 sliced, 1 left whole
  • 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
  • 700g jar tomato passata
  • (I ignored this and made my Super Italian Tomato Sauce instead, onions, garlic, fresh herbs (basil essential) splash of wine, tomatoes, salt, pepper, sprinkle of sugar, simmer)
This was pretty much a straight test of this here recipe which I found when looking for ways to make Cauliflower Cheese feel a little bit more like, y’know, a whole meal. I don’t have a problem with yellow things, I just want my meals to be made of more than that. So yes, this is like a cauliflower cheese pasta spinachy tomato bake. I followed it pretty straight, but couldn’t afford pine nuts, and think that another time round I’d stir an egg yolk into the cheese sauce, use an awful lot more cheddar in the sauce, and put grated mozarella on top instead. Served it with salad, but would be equally as nice with some home-made garlic bread. This didn’t amaze me, but I think would be a good one for lots of people or kids.

Instructions:

Make all the separate bits: The tomato sauce as I made it takes about 20 minutes and should go on first

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Set the cauliflower and penne off in the same massive salted water filled pan
Then make the cheese sauce – butter melted, add flour and then milk slowly whisking, thicken. Take it off the boil and add the cheddar and half the blue cheese, half the nutmeg, and stir in the egg yolk.Imag0241
The melt some butter in a frying pan and wilt the spinach with the rest of the nutmeg, some garlic, and seasoning.
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Then combine:
put 300ml of the cheese sauce aside and mix the rest with the cauliflower and pasta.
Get a massive dish, or several small ones and make the following layers: tomato/spinach/cauliflower and pasta/spinach/tomato and pour over the remaining cheese sauce and top with remaining cheeses.Imag0244Imag0245Imag0246
I’ve made 4 small ones which I cooled and then froze at this point. The one I was eating tonight I cooked at about 200C (gas 6) for about 20 minutes
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