Chef Thomas
A Proper Roast Chicken
A whole bird rubbed with butter, stuffed with lemon and thyme, roasted until the skin crackles and the kitchen smells like the kind of evening you want to sit down and stay in.
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Cheesy Pasta Bake with Vegetables
Created by Chef Thomas
Pasta shells folded through a leek-flecked cheese sauce with broccoli, baked until the top blisters gold and the whole kitchen smells like the kind of evening you want to sit down to.
Main Dishes
British
Weeknight
Comfort Food
Budget Friendly
20 min
Active Time
35 min cook•55 min total
Yield4 servings
There's a Tuesday evening in late October that this dish belongs to. The clocks have gone back. It's dark by five. You come in cold, put the kettle on, and the question isn't what to cook but what will make the kitchen feel like the warmest room in the house. This is the answer.
A pasta bake is not a glamorous thing, and it isn't trying to be. Shells in a white sauce, good cheddar melted through, broccoli and leeks because they're what the season gives you and because they belong here. The sauce is simple: butter, flour, milk, mustard, cheese. The kind of thing you can make without thinking once you've done it three or four times. The leeks go soft and sweet in the butter before the flour goes in, and that sweetness carries through the whole dish. A grating of nutmeg. A spoonful of mustard. The cheddar does the rest.
I make this more often than I write it down, which is the surest sign that a recipe has stopped being a recipe and become a habit. A conversation, not a contract. The broccoli can be cauliflower. The leeks can be onions. The pasta can be whatever's in the cupboard. Your kitchen, your rules. But the bones of it, the sauce, the cheese, the twenty minutes in a hot oven until the top goes golden and the edges start to bubble and catch, that's the part that stays the same.
There are few better feelings than carrying a dish like this to the table, still too hot to touch, and watching someone serve themselves a second helping without being asked. We're only making dinner. But sometimes that's enough.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
pasta shells
Quantity
300g
conchiglie or similar
broccoli
Quantity
1 large head
broken into florets
leeks
Quantity
2 medium
white and pale green parts, sliced
unsalted butter
Quantity
50g
plain flour
Quantity
2 tablespoons
whole milk
Quantity
500ml
English mustard
Quantity
1 teaspoon
mature cheddar
Quantity
200g
grated
Parmesan
Quantity
40g
finely grated
fine sea salt
Quantity
to taste
black pepper
Quantity
to taste
nutmeg
Quantity
pinch
freshly grated
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| pasta shellsconchiglie or similar | 300g |
| broccolibroken into florets | 1 large head |
| leekswhite and pale green parts, sliced | 2 medium |
| unsalted butter | 50g |
| plain flour | 2 tablespoons |
| whole milk | 500ml |
| English mustard | 1 teaspoon |
| mature cheddargrated | 200g |
| Parmesanfinely grated | 40g |
| fine sea salt | to taste |
| black pepper | to taste |
| nutmegfreshly grated | pinch |
Equipment Needed
- •Large saucepan for pasta and sauce
- •Ceramic or enamel baking dish, roughly 25cm x 20cm
- •Wooden spoon
- •Grater
Instructions
- 1
Cook the pasta and broccoli
Bring a large pan of well-salted water to the boil. Cook the pasta shells for two minutes less than the packet suggests. They'll finish cooking in the oven, and pasta that goes into a bake already soft comes out mushy. Add the broccoli florets for the final two minutes of cooking. Drain everything together, saving a mugful of the starchy cooking water. Set it all aside.
The pasta water is worth keeping. A splash of it loosens the sauce if it thickens too much, and the starch helps everything cling together. - 2
Soften the leeks
Melt the butter in the same pan over a gentle heat. Add the sliced leeks and a pinch of salt. Let them cook slowly, stirring now and then, until they've gone soft and silky and the kitchen smells sweet and buttery. Ten minutes, give or take. You're not looking for colour. Just patience.
- 3
Make the cheese sauce
Sprinkle the flour over the softened leeks and stir it through for a minute or so until it smells biscuity and has coated everything. Pour in the milk gradually, a good splash at a time, stirring constantly. It will seize up and look alarming at first. Keep going. Keep stirring. Each addition of milk loosens it, and after a few minutes you'll have a smooth, creamy sauce that coats the back of a spoon. Stir in the mustard, a grating of nutmeg, and about three quarters of the cheddar. Season well. Taste it. The sauce should be savoury and full, with a gentle mustard warmth underneath. If it tastes bland, it needs more salt. Be brave with it.
If the sauce goes lumpy, don't panic. Take it off the heat, whisk hard for thirty seconds, and it will come back together. It almost always does. - 4
Combine and assemble
Set the oven to 200C/180C fan. Tip the drained pasta and broccoli back into the sauce and fold everything together gently. The shells should be well coated, the broccoli distributed throughout, the leeks threaded through like soft green ribbons. If the sauce seems thick, add a splash of the reserved pasta water. Pour it all into a baking dish, something ceramic or enamel that you don't mind bringing to the table. Scatter the remaining cheddar and the Parmesan over the top.
- 5
Bake until golden
Bake for twenty to twenty-five minutes, until the top is golden and blistered in patches, the edges are bubbling, and the cheese has formed a crust that crackles when you press it with the back of a spoon. Let it sit for five minutes before serving. Not because you want to wait, but because the sauce needs a moment to settle and thicken. Serve it from the dish, straight onto warm plates. A green salad alongside, if you like, but it doesn't need much.
Chef Tips
- •Use a mature cheddar, something with bite and character. A mild cheddar will melt fine but it won't give you a sauce that tastes of anything much. The cheese is doing most of the heavy lifting here, so give it something to work with.
- •The mustard isn't optional. You won't taste it as mustard, but you'll notice its absence. It lifts the cheese sauce from pleasant to properly savoury. English mustard is best, the hot kind from a jar. A level teaspoon. Trust me on this.
- •If you want a crisper top, run it under the grill for the last two or three minutes. Watch it like you'd watch toast. The line between golden and burnt is narrow and unforgiving.
- •This reheats well the next day with a splash of milk to loosen the sauce. Leftovers in a lunchbox, warmed through, are a quietly good thing to look forward to.
Advance Preparation
- •The sauce can be made a day ahead and refrigerated. It will thicken as it cools, so loosen it with a little milk when reheating before combining with the pasta.
- •The whole bake can be assembled, covered, and refrigerated for up to a day before baking. Add five minutes to the oven time if cooking straight from the fridge.
- •Leftovers keep well in the fridge for two days. Reheat in the oven with a splash of milk and a fresh grating of cheese on top.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 440g)
Calories
785 calories
Total Fat
36 g
Saturated Fat
22 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
13 g
Cholesterol
100 mg
Sodium
870 mg
Total Carbohydrates
83 g
Dietary Fiber
6 g
Sugars
12 g
Protein
34 g
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