Brown Butter & Leek Gratin With Mozzarella

Brown Butter & Leek Gratin With Mozzarella

This is for when you need a side dish to impress. I love drizzling over a bit of truffle oil right at the end to take things up a notch. Visionally it’s great and I would serve at dinner party with maybe a roast chicken, roast potatoes. You can even go quite simple with the rest as it’s heavy-ish! Ticks all the gratin boxes; creamy, rich and veggie!

Check out my other side dish recipes here.

Serves 4 as a side

Ingredients:

4 leeks, sliced into 3cm circles

2 tbsp olive oil 150g mozzarella (1 ball)

1 tbsp truffle oil, optional

Salt and pepper

For the cream base:

40g butter, unsalted

6 garlic cloves, peeled and bashed

Handful sage leaves

230ml double cream

40ml veg stock

Lots of grated nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 190C degrees fan.

Grab a 20cm by 27cm baking tray and arrange the sliced leeks inside the tray. They can be packed quite tightly as they will shrink in the oven. Season them well with salt and pepper. Drizzle in 2 tbsp olive oil. Place at the top of the oven for 15mins to char and roast a bit.

While they roast, start on the creamy base. Set a large saucepan to a medium to high heat and add the butter. Let it melt and slightly brown to create brown butter. You will smell a hazelnut aroma and that means that it is ready. Careful not to burn it!

At this point, add the garlic, sage, cream, stock and nutmeg. Simmer gently together 4-5 mins to allow everything to infuse. Season with salt and generously with black pepper. Then strain the liquid.

Pour this into the leek tray and roast for 10mins. Then tear over mozzarella and add more pepper. Place under the grill for 5-6mins to melt and go golden.

Top with truffle oil and serve straight away.

Watch me make the recipe here!