Recipe: Baked Mac n Cheese with Broccoli Pesto

Baked Mac n Cheese with Broccoli Pesto

You can sneak almost anything into this dish! But I do love broccoli and it's in season right now, so it seemed like a good place to start.

By

Mon, Jan 21 2013 at 4:01 PM

Recipes

Photos: Jerry James Stone

Prep time: 15 minutes

Prep time: 30 minutes

Total time: 45 minutes

Yield: 5 servings

Baked Mac n Cheese with Broccoli Pesto

Ingredients

Cooking directions

Cut off the broccoli florets and peel the stalk, cutting the stalk into 1/2" pieces.
Add broccoli to the food processor and finely chop it, then transfer to a large mixing bowl.
Lightly fold in the chopped pine nuts, minced garlic, lemon zest and 1/4 cup parmesan cheese. Add the olive oil, more if needed.
Bring four quarts of water to a boil along with 1 tablespoon of salt. Add the fusilli and cook until al dente, about 9 minutes for most pastas.
Create a roux by warming the two tablespoons of butter in a large skillet and adding the flour. Whisk well until all of the flour is incorporated.
Slowly add in the milk. Once the flour, butter and milk have combined, add the shredded cheese.
At this point, the sauce should be fairly thick. If you want it to be thicker, bring the cheese sauce to a slight boil and then remove it from the heat. If you want to thin it out a bit, add more milk. But do it sloooowly.
In a large mixing bowl, toss the cooked fusilli with the cheese sauce then transfer it to a baking dish.
Place heaping tablespoons of the broccoli pesto throughout the cheesy pasta.
Top with the bread crumbs and the remaining shredded cheese.
Bake at 350 degrees F for about 20 minutes, until the cheese sauce begins to boil and the topping is golden.