Cauliflower cheese and pasta bake

So as I attempt to crawl back into real life after having Stanley and share some recipes with you I also have to accept that sometimes the photo won’t be so great. Yes, apologies about that. Seriously, my photos used to be good! But this was a really nice dinner, so I wanted to share it with you.

I had a lovely organic cauliflower from my Riverford delivery, and I’m now meal planning around my veg box, so, also with a fridge overflowing with cheese (mostly bits and bobs leftover from a cheeseboard we had), including Stilton, cheddar, red Leicester, Brie and even goat’s cheese – I wanged this together.

I made use of two different types of pasta – farfalle and those big tubes, no idea what they are called – but it was great to get rid of bags of about 100g of pasta, which is not enough to make a meal of. I really enjoyed this – so did Bea. Arthur less so, as he hates cheese. I KNOW – what. the. hell. Who hates cheese? It’s weird. If he wasn’t my son, I’d stop speaking to him. But, you know, he is so we make it work…

The amounts below are approximate as when I say wanged, I mean WANGED. Like, baby over one arm, older kids on screens and/or arguing, dog following me around waiting for his dinner, cats on surfaces also asking for their dinner. It’s a stressful time, dinner is… but we do what we can.

By the way, I was joking about not speaking to Arthur. Just in case you were worried.

Makes: enough for 4/6

Takes: 45 mins

Ingredients:

1 cauiflower, leaves too

About 250g pasta – any type

Cheese: about two big handfuls of whatever you want

About 2 tablespoons butter

Same of flour

About 3/4 pint milk

Seasoning

Splash cream and a teaspoon of English mustard (optional)

Method:

1. Bring pan of water to the boil. Add pasta and cauli florets and leaves. Cook until al dente.
2. Preheat oven to 190C.
3. Meanwhile, make a white sauce in the microwave – add butter, flour and milk to a glass jug and cook for 6 mins. Every minute whisk. It will eventually thicken.
4. Add cheese to sauce and whisk. Drain pasta and veg. Pop them in a large baking dish.
5. Add some cream and/or mustard to the cheese sauce if you wish. Season. Pour sauce over the veg and pasta. Bake for about 30 mins or until golden and bubbling.