Cheese & Broccoli Pasta Bake

Ingredients

• 45g plain flour
• 400g broccoli, cut into small florets
• salt and white pepper to taste
• 2 garlic cloves, grated
• 650ml whole milk, warmed
• 45g unsalted butter
• 400g penne
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 220g mature Cheddar, grated
• 150g mozzarella, torn
• a grating of nutmeg
• 50g panko breadcrumbs
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 40g Parmesan, finely grated
• crusty bread, to serve
• crisp green salad, to serve

Method

1. Heat the oven to 200C fan. Salt the pasta water generously — it should taste like the sea, and this is your only chance to season the pasta itself. Cook the penne for 6 minutes, drop in the broccoli florets, then cook 3 minutes more until the pasta is just shy of al dente and the broccoli is bright, vivid green. Drain, reserving a mugful of the starchy water.
2. Melt 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. Add the grated garlic to the roux and stir for 30 seconds, no more, until fragrant and pale gold. Don't let it catch — burnt garlic turns the whole sauce bitter and there's no rescuing it.
4. Whisk in the warm milk a ladle at a time, letting each addition come together smooth before adding the next. Stir in the butternut squash purée, then simmer for 4 minutes, whisking, until the sauce coats the back of a spoon and a finger drawn through leaves a clean line.
5. Off the heat, stir through the Dijon, most of the Cheddar, a grating of nutmeg, salt and white pepper. Taste, season, taste again — it should read rich and properly cheesy on its own, because the pasta will dilute it. Adjust now, not at the table.
6. Fold 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. Tip into a large baking dish, tuck the torn mozzarella through the top in pockets, then scatter the remaining Cheddar over everything.
8. Toss the panko with the olive oil and Parmesan until every crumb is coated — dry crumbs burn before they brown. Scatter in an even layer over the bake, then bake for 18 to 22 minutes until bubbling fiercely at the edges and deep golden on top.
9. Rest for 5 minutes so the sauce settles and stops sliding. Bring the dish to the table, set the crusty bread and crisp green salad alongside, drizzle the salad with extra virgin olive oil, and pass extra grated Parmesan for anyone who wants it.