Cheesy pasta with spinach & sausages

Today's recipe is one of my all time favourites, my mum used to make it lots of us when we were children and so when I went to university I took this recipe with me!

Cheesy pasta with spinach & sausages

Ingredients:
25g Butter
25g Plain Flour
600ml Milk
150g Grated cheese
300g Spinach, chopped
250g Pasta
8 Sausages
100g breadcrumbs



Method:

1. Grill sausages (as per pack instructions) for approximately 20 minutes, turning occasionally.
2. Boil the pasta (as per pack instructions) for approximately 10 minutes.
3. Melt the butter on a low heat.
4. Once melted take off the heat temporarily and add the flour, mix together well to form a thick dough (see photos below).
5. Add a little milk and whisk well to form a paste.
6. Place pan back on to a medium-low heat. Constantly whisking whilst slowly adding three quarters of the milk.
7. Once slowly simmering the sauce should start thickening (after about 10 minutes), add about half of the grated cheese and stir together, if the sauce becomes too thick add more milk, a little at a time.
8. Cook spinach by placing in the microwave for a minute.
9. Drain off as much liquid as possible and add to cheese sauce.
10. Mix the cooked pasta into the cheese sauce.
11. Mix the left-over grated cheese with the breadcrumbs.
12. Place the pasta and sauce into a Pyrex bowl, and top with the cheese/breadcrumb mix.
13. Place in the oven or under the grill for a few minutes until the topping has browned.
14. Serve with the cooked sausages (if vegetarian leave sausages out).

4) Mix melted butter with the flour

5 & 6) Add the milk and whisk well whilst gently heating

The finished product!