Cheese & Broccoli Pasta Bake

• 45 gplain flour
• 400 gbroccoli, cut into small florets
• Fine salt, to taste
• 2garlic cloves, grated
• 650 mlwhole milk, warmed
• 45 gunsalted butter
• 400 gpenne
• 1 tspDijon mustard
• 220 gvegetarian-labelled mature Cheddar, grated, 40 g reserved for topping
• 150 gvegetarian-labelled mozzarella, torn
• ¼ tspground nutmeg
• 50 gpanko breadcrumbs
• 1 tbspolive oil
• 40 gvegetarian Italian-style hard cheese, finely grated
• White pepper, to taste

Method

1. 1Heat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan. Cook the penne in salted boiling water for 2 minutes less than its packet time, adding the broccoli for the final 3 minutes. Drain, reserving a mugful of pasta water.
2. 2Melt the butter in the same pan over medium heat. Stir in the flour and cook for 2 minutes until it smells biscuity and looks like wet sand; this is the roux losing its raw edge.
3. 3Add the grated garlic to the roux and stir for 30 seconds, no more, until fragrant and pale gold.
4. 4Whisk in the warm milk a ladle at a time, letting each addition come together smooth before adding the next. Simmer for 4 minutes, whisking, until the sauce coats the back of a spoon and a finger drawn through leaves a clean line.
5. 5Off the heat, stir through the Dijon, 180 g of the Cheddar, a grating of nutmeg, salt and white pepper. Taste; it should read rich and properly cheesy on its own, because the pasta will dilute it.
6. 6Fold the penne and broccoli through the sauce, loosening with a splash of the reserved pasta water if it tightens; you want it loose, almost too saucy. It firms up in the oven.
7. 7Tip into a deep baking dish, about 30 x 20 x 6 cm, tuck the torn mozzarella through the top in pockets, then scatter the reserved 40 g Cheddar over everything.
8. 8Toss the panko with the olive oil and vegetarian hard cheese until every crumb is coated; dry crumbs burn before they brown. Scatter in an even layer over the bake, then bake for 22–25 minutes until bubbling fiercely at the edges and deep golden on top.
9. 9Rest for 5 minutes so the sauce settles and stops sliding.

Per serving

kcal

715

protein

35g

fibre

4.5g

carbs

68.8g

fat

33.1g