Family Favorite: Cauliflower Pasta

Ruth Reichl is one of my favorite food writers. Not only does she spin great tales from her vast wealth of experience in the industry, her recipes are easy and accessible to novice cooks and really tasty, too! This is an easy one to tweak to your family's preferences, which I do, and I also deviate a bit from her process. 


Here's today's cast!


The recipe calls for one head of cauliflower but I had two--I separated them into florets, gave them a good drizzle with avocado oil, then seasoned with salt and pepper. They went into the oven at 400F for about 35 minutes. 


In the meantime, I heated oil and butter in a small pan.


My family really likes capers so I add much more than the recipe calls for. Since they are so salty, I drain them and give them a quick rinse.


Chopped garlic went into the hot oil and butter mixture. I turned the heat down to low after about a minute so it wouldn't burn.


I drained a can of anchovies and added that in. I used the wooden spoon to mash them up so they would disintegrate into the oil.


It's not a pretty mixture but I love the smell of garlic and anchovies together.


I put the pan on warm and stirred in the capers.


Penne was cooked according to the package's directions then drained thoroughly.


The amalgamated mess...


Pasta absorbs sauce when it is still warm so I tossed it with some of the sauce to get the flavors into the dish ahead of the cauliflower.


A generous shake of pepper.


The cauliflower had a nice golden color by now so I tossed in approximately one head of it.


I tossed the cauliflower with the remaining sauce, added the chopped Kalamata olives, then tossed everything together.


Some chopped parsley and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese and that's it! More cheese can be added, or not, based on individual preference. If you like pasta dripping with sauce, this isn't for you. The pasta and cauliflower absorb like crazy but that's exactly what you want! It's very flavorful and neither too fishy from the anchovies or too salty/briny from the olives and capers. The guys love it!

Here's the promised link:






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