George lives next door to me, and his favourite breakfast is toasted muffins with chocolate spread….I couldn’t create a recipe from that, but luckily he loves broccoli, macaroni cheese and something he calls ‘cheese flan’. Now those I could work with. It may sound a bit rich , but I have tried to pack a lot of broccoli in to ‘lighten’ it up a bit. It is really simple and quick to pull together….especially if you have a steamer that you can put over the pasta while it is boiling
Some fun facts about broccoli – it originated in Italy, and was eaten by the Romans in 6th century BC, so it kinda makes sense it is a good ‘partner’ for pasta. Apparently Drusus Caesar, son of the Roman emperor Tiberius, so loved broccoli that he ate little else for more than a month. He only stopped when his pee turned green. Eeek!
There is a lot of broccoli here, but I am pretty sue your pee won’t turn green. 😉
- 500g broccoli (regular ‘ol broccoli…or purple sprouting)
- 200g pasta (elbow macaroni or whatever shape pasta is to hand)
- 5 eggs
- 40g flour
- 360ml whole milk
- ½ t salt
- 2t Dijon mustard
- 225g cheddar cheese, grated
Heat oven to 180C. Steam the broccoli for 3-5 minutes. Cool then chop it up. Cook the pasta until al dente (ever-so-slightly under cooked is best). Generously butter a 2 ½ quart baking dish. Whisk the flour in to the eggs, then whisk in the milk, mustard and salt. Mix the broccoli and pasta together and pour in the prepared dish. Sprinkle half the cheese over the broccoli/pasta. Pour the egg mix over then top with remaining cheese. Bake for 30 min at 180C, then turn heat up to 200C and bake for an additional 5-10 min or until cheese is just getting a hint of brown.
Quercy Food Experiences 