As I’ve told you, dear friends, ever since I got married two and a half months ago, I’ve really rediscovered my love for cooking – and I’ve been working on my old recipes, too, improving them for my darling husband! So, since my blog is meant to be an all-round blog on everything from books to travelling to lifestyle to food, I thought I’d share some of them with you. If you’re in for nutritious, tasty international food with traditional ingredients and sometimes a bit of an exotic and inventive touch, I bet you’ll want to try them! So, here’s the first one, which I did last week: Broccoli Gratin.
Cooking time: 40 minutes
Serves: 4
Ingredients:
500g broccoli
250g macaroni
200g ham
1 packet of ready bechamel mixture
1 ½ litres milk
200g grated cheese
50g breadcrumbs
50g butter
½ cup flour
Salt, pepper, olive oil
First, cook the macaroni. Pour the milk into a big bowl, add the bechamel mixture and whisk, and you’ve got your ready bechamel sauce. Cut the broccoli into bite-sized pieces, spread the flour on a plate and turn the broccoli pieces around in it. Cut the ham into slices or cubes.
Take a large baking dish, grease it with olive oil and pour in half the bechamel sauce. Add the broccoli, the macaroni, the ham and salt and pepper and sprinkle the breadcrumbs on it. On top, put the grated cheese and the butter flakes.
Bake in the oven for 20 minutes at 220°.
In my opinion, one of the best ways of doing broccoli, a very healthy vegetable full of vitamins and minerals! And a tip: you can also do it with courgettes (zucchini) instead of broccoli – and with potatoes instead of macaroni.
Bon appetit!
Roberta Franklin 