Vegetarian pasta bake with spinach and rich cheese sauce is easy to make and delicious. It is perfect for lunch or dinner.
Ingredients
- 30 g / 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 2 garlic cloves
- 3 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 400 ml / 1.7 cups milk (2% or whole fat)
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1/3 tsp ground nutmeg
- salt (to taste)
- black pepper (to taste)
- 300 g / 3 cups freshly shredded cheese (I use Cheddar and Emmental)
- 200 g/ 2 cups pasta
- 250 g / 1 cup spinach (defrosted)
Directions
- Grease a casserole dish with a bit of oil or butter.
- Set the oven to heat to 180° Celsius or 400° Fahrenheit.
- To prepare the sauce for the pasta melt butter in a pot on the stove on medium low heat.
- Add pressed or chopped garlic to the butter, stir a bit and cook the garlic for a minute.
- Add flour to the butter, mix and cook for a minute. The flour will soak up all the butter and create lumps.
- Gradually add milk in the pot and whisk to dissolve the flour lumps. When all the milk has been added, let it simmer while slowly stirring till the sauce thickens. In the meanwhile add also the nutmeg, black pepper and mustard.
- When the sauce has thickened, add about 3/4 of the cheese and stir to dissolve the cheese.
- Taste the ready sauce and add salt as necessary.
- Boil the pasta 1 minute less than indicated on the package for pasta al dente as the it will still cook in the dish when baked.
- Drain the past and put it in a big bowl. Add the defrosted spinach and the cheese sauce. Mix everything well.
- Put the pasta with the sauce in the casserole dish. Level and sprinkle the remaining cheese on top.
- Bake for about 20 minutes till it’s bubbly, the cheese has melted and you see some crunchy spots on sides.
- Remove from the oven, let it cool for a few minutes and enjoy!