tom This recipe is not only delicious but it manages to pack a whole cauliflower in for extra goodness. Our kids love it, delicious as a side or main meal. Play around with the cheese varieties to give it some different flavours. Or try adding chorizo for an extra dimension to the flavour!
Ingredients
- 300g dried cavatappi or fusilli pasta
- 600–700ml whole milk
- 65g unsalted butter, cut into roughly 3cm cubes
- 3 garlic cloves, crushed
- 75ml double cream
- 150g mature cheddar, roughly grated
- 100g mozarella grated
- 50g grated parmesan
- salt and black pepper
- Head of caulflower
For the topping
- 50ml olive oil
- 50g grated parmesan
- 150g panko bread crumbs
Method
- Cut the cauliflower into florets and boil for about 10 minutes until nice and soft. Then drain the water and mash the cauliflour. Put to one side ready to add to the mac’n’ cheese.
- Put the pasta, 600ml of milk, 350ml of water, the butter, garlic, 1 teaspoon of salt and a good grind of pepper into a large sauté pan on a medium-high heat. Bring to a simmer, then turn the heat down to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, for 10–14 minutes, or until the pasta is al dente and the sauce has thickened from the pasta starches (it will still be quite saucy). If using cavatappi, you might need to add the extra 100ml of milk at this stage depending on how saucy you like your mac ’n’ cheese. Turn the heat down to low and stir through the cream and cheeses until the cheddar is nicely melted.
- Pre-heat your oven to 180C fan.
- Mix the bread crumps, olive oil and parmesan together in a bowl
- Transfer the mac’n’ cheese into a large serving dish, sprinkle over the bread crumb mixture.
- Put the mac’n’cheese into the oven and bake for 10-15 mintutes until the topping is golden and the dish is bubbling.
It’s a great dish for freezing. You can skip the final baking part and freeze with the topping. Then when you want to eat defrost and bake for 20-30 minutes at 180C until it is heated through.