Name of Recipe: Broccoli and Blue Cheese Pasta
Number of People: 4+
Ingredients:800g broccoli or approx 1.5 large heads
375g wholemeal pasta
600g milk
50g plain white wheat flour
30g butter
salt and pepper
150g creamy blue veined cheese
Optional grated parmesan to serve (really nice)
Preparation:Cut the broccoli into large florets, but small enough to fit in the Varoma. Using large florets means you're using more of the nutritious stem, which is only going to get puréed anyway... Add to the Varoma, with 600g tap water in the
and cook on Varoma temp for 20mins on speed 2.
When the broccoli has finished, remove the Varoma from the bowl and set aside. Empty the water out of the bowl, into a large pan that you will cook the pasta in. Top that up with tap water and bring to the boil, salt, and add 375g ish of wholemeal pasta.
No need to wash or dry the bowl properly. Now add the milk, flour and butter to the
and cook at 90 degrees for 12 minutes on speed 4.
Your pasta should be almost cooked so quickly add the broccoli to the bowl and blitz on speed 8 for 30 seconds (no heat).
Cut the cheese into about six wedges and drop them one at a time into the bowl, with the blades turning on speed 2. Now add salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste (remembering that adding parmesan to serve will add a lot more salt to the flavour). You may wish to cook at 90 degrees for a further two minutes, on speed 3.
Drain the pasta and pour the sauce over the top. At this consistency it should be good to coast the pasta, without setting like custard
Photos: Doesn't last long enough around here, sorry!
Tips/Hints:My DD8 hates cheese.
My DD4 loves cheese, but it getting funny about it at times. She ate some of the blue cheese straight from the packet last night and declared it horrible, as I warned her. DH and I don't like it straight, though I can tolerate it much better than he can.
Both of my girls sat at the table repeating how delicious it was! DH and I thought it was hilarious!
I do suggest you add half the cheese, then try the sauce, and add more according to your taste. Truly though, this quantity (150g) gives the broccoli sauce a bit of a flavour kick without making the sauce powerful, as blue cheese is itself.
Grate the parmesan first if you wish to add it later, or just use a peeler to drops flakes of parmesan on top to serve.
This quantity went VERY FAR last night, which surprised me. Perhaps I made more sauce than normal? First time I've done it in the TMX, with the EDC béchamel sauce for quantity guidelines, so probably did end up with more sauce. So two adults here and two children aged 8 and 4, we've ended up with two lunch-size portions left in the fridge
I must say though, that using wholemeal pasta makes a big difference to the amount that you can eat. It is VERY filling.
