Roasted Vegetable & Cheese Bake

Preparation

• Add butter to a pan and heat it till it melts.
• Add flour to the butter and cook for 1-2 mins.
• Set the milk on the side to heat simultaneously.
• Once the flour has cooked, pour the hot milk in continuously while whisking.
• Add the bay leaf and peppercorns and cook on a low flame continuously whisking until it's thick.
• Season the white sauce with salt and pepper.  

For the Bake 

• Cut mushrooms into quarters, carrots and zucchini into batons and broccoli into florets.
• Season and toss the vegetables with oil and roast for 20 mins at 200°c in the oven.
• Clean and blanch the spinach in boiling water, and then shock the spinach in ice water right after blanching to help it retain its green colour.
• Roughly chop the blanched spinach.
• Mix the romesco cream cheese into the prepared Bechamel.
• Add the roasted vegetables and blanched spinach to the sauce and gently fold so that everything is evenly distributed.
• Garnish with mozzarella and extra virgin olive oil and set for baking until the top is nice and golden at 200°c.
• Garnish with chopped parsley and serve hot.