shallot, cauliflower, mushroom and taleggio bake

this was a leftovers kind of a saturday lunch but it was so good that i felt i had to do a post on it. it shows you how a bit of nice cheese can transform a few simple ingredients into something quite special. taleggio melts quite spectacularly but, unlike most melting cheeses which i find a little bland, it also has an interesting flavour. the only reason why we ended up with it is because the woman i let queue jump before our marathon salami-slicing session in the italian deli only bought a chunk of taleggio. it was from a big block cut in half, so the other half clearly had my name on it.

i think the idea for the dish came from an onion and taleggio puff pastry tart i did once for a christmas party. initially, i thought i’d do a thin omelette as a base and pile the stuff on top before grilling it but i’m a bit bored of eggs at the moment (yes, there is such a thing) and i just didn’t fancy another version of omelette/frittata/eggy bake.

so, the way to do this is to peel and halve loads of small shallots – 10 or so will do for two people, break up half of cauliflower into quite small florets, and slice up a couple of large mushrooms quite thickly. chuck them all in a big roasting tin and sprinkle generously with olive oil. rub it in with your hands so that each bit of veg is covered with some. season – generously with pepper but don’t go crazy with the salt depending on how salty your cheese is, and chuck in some thyme sprigs if you have any.

bake in a hot oven at 200 for about 45 minutes or until all the veg is cooked through and starting to caramelise. do shake the roasting tin every now and again and check it’s not getting too dry/burnt. if there are no crispy edges after that time, turn up the heat a bit for another 10 or so minutes. right at the end, slice up the taleggio and drape over the vegetables evenly. let it melt in the oven for a minute or so.

we ate it with reheated leftover roast chicken, which was perfect, though it’s substantial enough to have on its own.