Depending on the cheese you use, this can be sort of light and cheesy, or you can make it nice and gooey with plenty of chew to it. For the latter, use a mixture of provolone and mozzarella with a little parmesan or romano thrown in for flavor depth. You could also use a sharp cheddar if you wish, and add some bacon if you are feeding carnivores who typically eschew vegetables.
INGREDIENTS:
1 bunch broccoli (around 1½-2 pounds), florets cut off and stems trimmed, peeled, and cut into ¼-inch cubes, kept separate 1 small to medium white or yellow onion, cut into ¼-inch dice 2 cups béchamel (see recipe), infused with sage (assemble ingredients for béchamel and be prepared to make it in the pan you are using for this dish) 4-6 sage leaves 1 clove garlic, peeled Salt and pepper to taste 1 cup + ¼ cup Gruyere cheese*, grated 1 cup bread crumbs, homemade, or use panko** 1 tablespoon unsalted butter Grape seed (or other neutral flavored) oil, as needed
METHOD:
Heat the oven to 350°F. Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
Rub a gratin dish just large enough for all the ingredients with the peeled clove of garlic. Rub hard so you see smears of garlic oil in the dish. The garlic should get damaged while doing this. Once the bottom and sides are smeared, discard the garlic and reserve the dish.
Once the water boils, salt it well. Build an ice bath for putting the blanched broccoli into. Add the florets and blanch 2 minutes. Remove from the water and dump the florets into the ice water. Wait 5 minutes and remove florets from the water and drain. Reserve.
Add the cubes of stem to the boiling water and cook 1-1½ minutes, just until they are no longer raw. Add to the ice water, then drain when cool. Use a large knife to roughly chop the broccoli florets into pieces around the size of the stem bits.
Heat a large sauté pan over medium heat. When hot, add the tablespoon of butter and enough oil to film the pan bottom. When hot, add the onion and sauté until onions are translucent. Add the broccoli and toss all together to combine. Remove to a non-reactive bowl and reserve.
Use the sauté pan to make the béchamel (see recipe). Before adding the flour, add half the sage leaves and cook until the leaves darken and are fragrant. Remove the sage and continue. Make the béchamel. When it is thickened, add the cheese, a bit at a time, and stir until it is all melted in. Add the onions and broccoli and stir to coat the vegetables. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the vegetables to the gratin dish.
Pour the rest of the sauce over the vegetables and tamp down to even the surface.
Mix the bread crumbs with the ¼ cup cheese and toss to combine well. Sprinkle over the top of the gratin, and transfer gratin to a sheet pan in the center of preheated oven. (The sheet pan is in case the béchamel bubbles over; this keeps the oven clean and you don’t wind up with the nasty smell of burnt milk and flour.)
Cook until gratin is bubbling and golden, around 40-45 minutes. When gratin is done, remove from the oven and allow to cool 10-15 minutes. (This allows the gratin time to firm up a little and helps keep people from burning mouths.) Serve.
Chef’s Notes:
*Instead of Gruyere, you could use provolone, fresh mozzarella, and parmesan in a 2:2:1 ratio, or even less of the parmesan. The provolone gives nice ropy strings, and the mozzarella adds sweetness and tempers the provolone, while the parmesan adds depth and salinity. A sharp cheddar would be good also, especially if you cooked up some 3-4 slices of bacon first and cooked the béchamel in some of the bacon fat.
**Panko are Japanese style bread crumbs that are light and cook up to a nice evenly golden crust. They are almost flaky in shape, and this helps with how they cook. Using the breadcrumbs that come in a tube will be disappointing as they are more sandy in shape and texture, and are denser that using homemade. So, if you do not have homemade, do try panko.
Serves: 4
Source: Chef Andrew E Cohen
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