Cauliflower Cheese with Crispy Parmesan Crumbs

Cheese began to be used as a topping for vegetables in the eighteenth century. The cardoon, a vegetable that’s a very close relative of the globe artichoke and rarely seen in Britain now, was among the first to be treated in this way, the recipe coming from France, where it was known as chardons à la fromage. They were covered with Cheddar or Parmesan and coloured with a hot cheese iron or under a salamander (grill). The idea was soon adopted in England for the more familiar cauliflo