Broccoli, chorizo and pasta bake

Sounds weird hey?  I kind of think anything with a creamy sauce, pasta and chorizo is going to taste great though, and it did.



I was getting out the usual vegies for dinner tonight and thought about what I could do with 300g of broccoli.  Don't get me wrong.  I like steamed vegies but it does get a bit old.



I was in the mood for something cheesy so I put together a cheesy pasta bake with what I had around; mozzarella, parmesan, macaroni, broccoli, onion, spied some left over chorizo in the freezer, added that and it was a success.  Any fleeting guilt you might feel about the chorizo and cheese - remember the broccoli!!  The broccoli makes this healthy .... at this point I also realised some oven baked cherry tomatoes would have been great mixed in, but I didn't have any of those.



Please excuse any blurriness in my photos; one glass of wine + taking photos for blog doesn't mix.  Oh yeah, we had wine too.  Wine on a Wednesday night!  Rock and roll.  It was a good night.

















Recipe:



250g cherry tomatoes

320g small pasta

2 heaped 20ml tablespoons butter or margarine

2 heaped 20ml tablespoons all purpose or plain flour

3 cups milk

300g broccoli, sliced into small florets

100g chorizo, sliced thinly (you could substitute bacon or ham for this)

1 onion, diced

60g mozzarella cheese, grated

40g parmesan, grated finely

Salt and pepper to taste



Preheat oven to 190 degrees C (fan forced).  Add 1 tspn of olive oil and seasoning to the cherry tomatoes, and bake in oven for 20 minutes or until just starting to break down.



Boil pasta in salted water for 8-9 minutes.



Steam broccoli until just tender.



Meanwhile, over medium to high heat, cook flour and butter and a heavy based medium sized saucepan for 2 minutes, then slowly add milk, whisking until smooth.  Swap to a wooden spoon and stir until thickened.  Add seasoning at the end to taste.



Saute onion and thinly sliced chorizo together in small pan - there isn't any need to add oil because the chorizo is oily enough and flavours the onion.



When everything is cooked, mix together with half the parmesan in large, shallow baking dish.  Sprinkle over the rest of the parmesan and the mozzarella and bake for 20-25 minutes until bubbling and golden brown.



Makes: 4 large serves, 6 smaller serves