Mac and Three C's
Half a head of cauliflower, cut into bite sized florets
500g macaroni or other shell / tubey pasta
2 mild chorizo, sliced into coins
75g of butter
3 or 4 tablespoons of flour
8 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2 ribs of celery, diced
1 onion, diced
500 ml of milk
500 ml of vege or chicken stock
4 bay leaves
200g of tasty cheese, grated
100g of mozzarella (that hard one from the supermarket, not the good stuff), grated
2 x teaspoon of fresh oregano (or 1 x dried)
100g of parmesan or pecorino
Sesame seeds and cherry tomatoes sliced in half
A few tablespoons of chopped parsley
Bring a pot of water to the boil, salted as if for pasta. Reduce to a simmer and cook the cauliflower in it for 3 to 5 minutes, until tender but still with some bite. When it’s done, scoop it out with a sieve and chuck ina bowl, and use the same water to cook your pasta (bring it back to the boil first).
Meanwhile, cook the chorizo in a medium hot fry pan with a tiny bit of oil. When they’re cooked, add them to the same bowl as the cauliflower. Don’t lose any of that sweet red oil that’s come out of the chorizo.
Preheat oven to 220 C.
In a dutch oven (if you have one, otherwise a large saucepan is fine), melt the butter and add the flour over medium heat to make your roux. Stir until there’s no lumps of flour, then add the garlic. The garlic will turn into a sticky paste, then add the celery and onion and cook for 5 to 10 minutes minutes until soft.
Gradually pour in the milk, then the stock, stirring to remove any lumps from the mixture. Bring to a simmer, and then add the bay leaves. Let it cook for about 10 minutes or so. Taste, and season. I don’t use pepper here if I’m making it for kids.
By now your pasta will be cooked, so drain it. If you’ve made your sauce in a dutch oven, you can chuck the pasta straight in there. Otherwise put everything in a big oven dish. Whatever you’re using, chuck the pasta, the cauliflower, the chorizo, the sauce, the tasty cheese and mozzarella and the oregano into it. Stir to combine, and even it out so it has relatively flat surface on top. Put the cherry tomatoes on top, then the parmesan, then the sesame seeds.
Chuck it all in the oven. I honestly don’t know for how long, but until it gets nice and golden brown.
Give it 10 minutes out of the oven for the juices to incorporate, then serve. I put into kids bowls for a good 5 minutes before they eat it because this thing is hotter than the fiery pits of hell, and the tomatoes especially are like little heat bombs.
Add shitloads of pepper and the chopped parsley to grown ups bowls.
