Generously butter the casserole dish and preheat the oven to 450 F.

Clean the endives, pull off any discolored outer leaves, slice the root end off and slice in half lengthwise.

Add 2 tablespoons olive oil to the skillet and heat until very hot. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon sugar then arrange as many endives as you can in the skillet and cook for about 3 minutes, until nicely browned. Turn over and cook the other side until nicely browned. Remove to a plate and repeat with the remaining endives, adding more oil and another tablespoon of sugar, if needed.

Put 2 endive halves back together to make a whole endive, roll in a piece of ham and repeat with the remaining endives.

In the saucepan, melt the butter, whisk in the flour, then very slowly whish in the milk over medium heat until the sauce thickens and bubbles. Add mustard, nutmeg, salt, pepper, garlic and cheese of choice and whisk until melted and well blended to make your sauce. Add a little more milk if you would like it a bit thinner.

Pour some of the sauce in the bottom of the casserole dish, arrange the endive rolls in the dish, pour the rest of the sauce over them, sprinkle the Parmesan over the top, and then add a generous sprinkling of salt and coarsely ground pepper.

Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and bake another 25 minutes, until the top is golden and bubbly. Remove from the oven and cool a little before serving as it will be very hot.

Recipe (c) 2014 by Hillary Davis, author of "French Comfort Food"

(Lisa Dinsmore is a writer, web programmer and wine lover. She shares her passion for all things vino at www.dailywinedispatch.com. One for the Table is Amy Ephron's online magazine that specializes in food, politics and love. http://www.oneforthetable.com/.)