Broccoli Bake with Prosciutto Crumble Topping

The other evening, I took the basics of broccoli cheese soup, tweaked ‘em a bit, baked them into a casserole, and topped them with a Prosciutto crumb topping. The verdict? It’s going into the keeper file, folks. Here, I’m show y’all how I did it. 

“Broccoli Bake with Prosciutto Crumble Topping”

8 cups broccoli florets
3 tablespoons olive oil
4 ounces of prosciutto
2 tablespoons butter
1 and ½ cups milk
2-3 tablespoons flour
4 ounces Gouda cheese
4 ounces of cheddar cheese (you can skip the Gouda and use 8 ounces of Cheddar if you prefer)
2 cups parmesan flavored croutons (crushed)

I took eight cups of broccoli florets, seasoned them with salt, pepper, and a good Cajun seasoning and tossed them in my mixing bowl with olive oil. I spread them on a baking sheet and slipped ‘em in the oven at 400 degrees. They’re roasting now. We want them to get crispy and tender–should take ten to fifteen minutes.

Meanwhile, we’ll fry about four ounces of prosciutto in a cast iron skillet over low heat. If you’re not familiar with prosciutto, you need to fix that. Prosciutto is thinly sliced ham that has a slightly salty sweet flavor. It is often used right out of the package but for this recipe we’ll lightly fry it, just a couple minutes. Then we’ll remove it and blot it with a paper towel. Once it cools, we’ll be crumbling it to use as a topping. Right now, we need to make a basic white sauce using a couple tablespoons of butter, 2-3 tablespoons of flour and 1 and ½ cups milk. Those steps? Just melt the butter in your skillet over a low flame, stir in the flour and then slowly whisk in your milk.  When the sauce begins to thicken, we’ll fold in 4 ounces of Gouda cheese and four ounces of cheddar cheese along with our roasted broccoli florets.

We’ll stir this well and transfer it all to a baking dish. Then we’ll pop our dish back into the oven uncovered for about thirty minutes. Afterwards, we’ll remove it, top it with our crushed croutons and crumbled prosciutto and return it to the oven for another five minutes. Yum! That’s my Broccoli Bake with Prosciutto Crumble Topping and it’s mighty good eating from the All Things Southern kitchen to yours~