If the name of this pasta sounds familiar, it’s because you might be thinking of Panera Bread’s Broccoli Cheddar Soup. That’s exactly what you should be thinking, because this pasta is an ode to the soup.

Growing up one of my favorite meals was what we called “broccoli carrot cheese soup”. I would only get it every now and then, as my mom’s version included the likes of Velveeta cheese and didn’t line up with what she normally fed her family. No matter how much broccoli and carrots you put in the soup, they just won’t offset the mysterious substance that is Velveeta Cheese.

My childhood love of the soup led me to think, why couldn’t you recreate it as a pasta? You know, make the cheesy soup a little thicker so it’s like a sauce, then add pasta? Basically macaroni and cheese with broccoli and carrots. But you know, sans Velveeta.

Seemed like a great idea to me! While it normally takes at least a few tries, if not many, when I’m creating a new recipe or idea, this was one of the few instances where the first try turned out pretty great. Some things are just meant to be, ya know?

While the classic soup uses cheddar, I don’t use cheddar when I make this in Italy. Cheddar is only sold in select stores in Italy, almost always in slices, and is not the cheapest. For these reasons, I use my go-to melty cheese, Fontal. And a bit of Parmesan, because Italy. Cheddar is the original choice for the soup, and is often used as a melting cheese in many recipes, and one of my favorites to use when I’m making this in the States. On the other hand, you don’t have to use Fontal or cheddar, use your favorite melting cheese!

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Recipe by Jenny Nicole

Broccoli Cheddar Pasta

Serves 3-4

Ingredients:

8oz / 250g (1/2 package) short pasta, such as shells, fusilli, macaroni, etc.
2 Tbsp / 28g butter
1 head of broccoli, chopped into small pieces
2 medium carrots, sliced into half or quarter moons
3 Tbsp / 23g all-purpose flour
1/2 cup / 118g vegetable broth or water
1 cup / 237g milk
1/4 tsp turmeric
salt and pepper, to taste
1 cup / 114g shredded cheddar, fontal, or similar cheese
1/4 cup / 25g grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

Bring water to boil in a large pot and cook pasta according to directions. In the meantime you can start the sauce.
In a large pot over medium heat, melt butter. Add broccoli and carrots and cover with a lid, stir frequently. Cook until vegetables start to become tender, about 12-15 minutes.
Remove lid and turn heat down to low. Add flour and stir until it has coated the vegetables.
Add broth and stir until thickened.
Add milk, 1/4 cup at a time, stirring constantly. Allow mixture to start to thicken each time before adding the next 1/4 cup of milk.
Add turmeric, salt and pepper, and cheeses; stir until all the cheese is melted and the sauce is homogeneous.
Once the pasta is cooked, drain it, reserving some of the pasta water.
Add the pasta to the sauce and stir to evenly coat. If a thinner sauce is desired, add some of the reserved pasta water.

Jenny’s Notes:

You can cook the broccoli and carrots in a couple different ways:
- Sauté/steam them as in the recipe above
- Steam them and make the sauce separately, adding the steamed veggies to the sauce after the cheese
- Boil them with the pasta. If you choose this boiling method, you can add the veggies at the same time as the pasta which will result in very soft veggies, or add them in half way through to retain a bit of bite. Drain pasta and veggies as you normally would the pasta, then add all to sauce.