Recipe Background
Endgame Casserole: A vegetarian delight with creamy cheese sauce, tender kale, and a crunchy panko topping.
This is your dinnertime showstopper. Conversations should halt immediately upon seeing this dish. This is Endgame Casserole. That might feel a touch dramatic, but it has a dramatic taste and deserves a little gravitas! Kale, cooked tender, makes a welcome garden-fresh partner to the creamy cheese sauce, the bouncy pasta shells, and the crunchy panko topping. Who says you need meat to be a main course? Endgame Casserole proves that vegetarian cooking can be just as dynamic as the title suggests!
Ingredients
- 4 quarts water
- 1/4 cup plus 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt divided
- 1 (16-ounce) package fresh kale chopped
- 4 cups whole milk
- 6 tablespoons salted butter cold and cut into pieces
- 1 cup yellow onion chopped
- 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 (8-ounce) package pre-shredded Monterey Jack cheese
- 1 teaspoon hot sauce of your choice
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 8 ounces medium-size shell pasta cooked
- 1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
Directions
- Preheat the broiler with the oven rack set about 8-9 inches from the heating element.
- Grease a 7x11-inch baking dish.
- In a Dutch oven, add the water and 1/4 cup of the salt.
- Bring the salted water to a boil over high heat.
- Add the kale and boil until tender, about 5-7 minutes.
- Drain the kale and pat it dry with paper towels, allowing it to cool for 10 minutes.
- Place the milk in a 1-quart measuring cup.
- Cover the measuring cup with plastic wrap and microwave on high for 3 minutes.
- In the Dutch oven over medium heat, melt the butter.
- Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 6 minutes.
- Add the flour and cook, whisking constantly, until the raw flour smell disappears, about 2 minutes.
- Whisk in the hot milk.
- Increase the heat to medium-high and bring the mixture to a low boil, whisking often.
- Cook, whisking often, until thickened, about 6 minutes.
- Transfer the Dutch oven from the heat and whisk in the cheese, the hot sauce, the pepper, and the remaining salt.
- Fold the kale and the cooked pasta into the cheese sauce.
- Add the mixture to the prepared baking dish.
- Stir together the panko and the olive oil.
- Sprinkle the breadcrumbs over the pasta mixture.
- Broil until the panko is golden brown, about 1-2 minutes.
- Serve immediately.
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