Cauliflower Cheese

I used to dread this as a child at school. Actually, I dreaded all school food, save those strange reconstituted pork ribs, garish red and shaped like a chocolate bar. Those were OK. But the cauliflower cheese… ugh. An overcooked, watery mass drowning in a bland white sauce thick with uncooked flour and the meanest pinch of sweaty block Cheddar. The sauce would congeal on the plate, with a wretched, translucent moat around it. This is the exact opposite: a generous, hearty and deeply-flavou