Macaroni and Cauliflower Cheese Bake

The Normans's Note:

Sourced from the recipe section of a friends Woman's Day Magazine. I have a hankering for anything with cauliflower lately. You could substitute other vegetables if cauliflower is not your thing.

• Total Time: 1 hrs
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Cook Time: 40 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 6

• 250 g macaroni
• 500 g cauliflower, cut into florets
• 60 g butter
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1/3 cup plain flour
• 3 cups milk
• 2 cups parmesan cheese, finely grated
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
• 4 slices rindless bacon, chopped
• 220 g bocconcini, torn

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 200C/ 390°F Cook pasta in large saucepan of boiling salted water following packet directions. Add cauliflower half way through cooking time. Drain well and return to pan.
2. In separate pan, melt butter on medium heat, saute onion 3-4 minutes until tender, add flour and cook stirring for one minute. Remove pan from heat and gradually add milk and thyme and whisk until combined. Return pan to medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture boils and thickens. Remove from heat, stir in 1 1/2 cups of parmesan and the mustard. Season to taste.
3. Add cheese sauce to pasta mixture, stirring to combine. Transfer to shallow oven proof dish. Top with bacon, bocconcini and remaining parmesan. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Reviews

[Vicki Kaye]

This was a filling and yummy dish. Pure comfort food. My picky 17-year-old took one bite and said, "ooooh, this is GOOD." Then she took a second bite and turned to me with a suspicious look in her eye--"this is quite a tricky way to hide cauliflower!" The vegetable blends in perfectly with the macaroni and cheese--your child will never know it's there until their taste buds have already told them this is delicious. I gave it 4 stars because while there was nothing that couldn't be worked around, I found it odd to have metric measurements alternating with western. I also didn't know the boccocino was a mozzarella cheese. It didn't say whether to cook the bacon, so I assume you are supposed to put it on raw, but I was worried the low cook temperature for only 20-30 minutes would not cook it sufficiently. So I cooked bacon first and increased the temp anyway to 300 degrees--just seemed necessary to me to heat casserole all the way through in the given time. But fun and excellent dish.