Jamie Oliver's Incredible Baked Cauliflower & Broccoli Cannelloni

This is the first recipe I tried out of my new Jamie Oliver Cook Book. Jamies' book is based on the seasons in a garden and what other meats and produce are most available in particular seasons. As our garden and our daughter's garden are producing abundances of tomatoes and broccoli and cauliflower now, I started in his late summer / early fall section with 'Incredible Baked Cauliflower and Broccoli Cannelloni .

Ingredients

• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 pound broccoli & 1 pound cauliflower, washed , florets and stems chopped(*from our daughter's garden~ and he really does mean CHOPPED!)
• olive oil
• 7 cloves garlic, peeled and finely sliced
• small bunch of fresh thyme, leaves picked (*from our herb garden)
• 1 ounce can best quality anchovies in oil, drained and chopped, oil reserved
• 2-3 small dried chilies, crumbled
• 2 cups good quality tomato sauce. ( *tomato sauce made from our garden tomatoes)
• good quality red-wine vinegar
• 2 cups creme' fraiche
• 7 ounces finely grated Parmesan cheese
• 16 cannelloni tubes
• small bunch of fresh basil, leaves picked ( *from our daughter's garden)
• 7 ounces mozzarella cheese (*Jamie says "tear"over the recipe, but I grated this & sprinkled liberally over the top)
• extra virgin olive oil

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Bring a large sauce pan of salted water to boil and drop in the chopped broccoli and cauliflower. Boil for 5-6 minutes, until cooked, then drain in colander reserving some of the cooking water(*You don't need to save more than 2 cups). Heat a wide saucepan, pour in a couple good glugs of olive oil and add the garlic. Fry for a few seconds, then add the thyme leaves, anchovies, anchovy oil and chilies and continue frying for a few seconds more before adding the cooked broccoli and cauliflower with around 4 tablespoons of the reserved cooking water. Stir everything together, put a lid on the pan leaving a little gap, and cook slowly for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring regularly-overcooking the veg not only intensifies their flavor but gives you the texture you need for this recipe. Remove the lid for the last 5 minutes to let the moisture evaporate, then use a potato masher to crush the veg. Take the saucepan off the heat, taste the vegetables and season carefully with salt and pepper.( *This alone would make a delicious veg dish!) Spread the mixture on a baking sheet to cool. Meanwhile, get yourself another baking dish or roasting pan ( the right size for fitting the cannelloni tubes snugly side by side ) and pour in the tomato sauce with a pinch of salt and a swig of red wine vinegar. (*Jamie does not say anywhere to pre-boil the cannelloni, but I did anyway not trusting it to be done enough otherwise. I am glad I did. I precooked the tubes for about 6 minutes and they were easy to handle and baked up perfect) Now, to make a really quick and easy white sauce, mix the creme' fraiche with half the Parmesan, a sprinkling of salt and pepper and a little of the cooking water to thin it down. Spoon your cooled broccoli and cauliflower mixture into the tubes. (*Jamie proceeds to talk about turning a sandwich bag into a squeeze bag to squirt into the tubes, which I did, then gave up and spooned it into the tubes which turned out to be way easier and less messy. I stood the tubes in a chunky glass to stand them up for easier filling.) Fill the tubes up~don't be stingy!~and place them in a single layer on top of the sauce. Lay the basil leaves over the cannelloni and spoon your white sauce evenly over the top. Season with black pepper, sprinkle over the remaining Parmesan and tear over the Mozzarella. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and bake for 30 to 40 minutes , or until golden on top. This is delicious! I will make this many more times, but after making it for the first time following Jamies' advice I have decided he probably has help with the clean up because I used most of my big pans and bowls. I know now how to streamline the making of this recipe without changing a thing. So very worth making! Thank-you Jamie~ NOTE: I have posted Jamie's recipe according to his book, any comments with an asterisk are mine. I have not added all Jamies' wonderful comments on gardening, his experiences and colorful anecdotes because it is HIS book and well worth purchasing for it's beauty and practicality. I have added some of my own remarks to make some things more clear or explain some things that might be very clear to the British reader but not to many Americans.