Cauliflower and pasta - so very many options

“If the cauliflower looks back at you with a vigorous air, buy it; if it looks in need of a good night’s sleep, leave it where it is.” Jane Grigson

cauliflower

pasta

The quote has nothing to do with what I am writing about today but I liked it so there you have it. I think she means a cauliflower like the one in the picture is what you need.

So - cauliflower is cheap and I bought one yesterday, so I thought I would do a pasta dish. I have a favourite one from Beverley Sutherland Smith (really for broccoli, but it works with cauliflower too), but I thought I would try something different and started browsing the net. Well - so many, many recipes. I am a bit overwhelmed. Who knew you could do so many things with cauliflower and pasta because really one doesn't usually think of cauliflower and pasta. It's not an obvious combination. But who am I to say. It's very probably the latest thing.

It seems to me that the options fall into a few different categories and along the way you will get the message that there are few ingredients much favoured over others. The following list is not exclusive - I'm sure there are other things - but these seemed to be the most common ingredients thrown in with the cauliflower in some way:

Cheese - well it's pasta so of course there's cheese, but lots of different kinds of cheese - from blue cheese, through cheddar, ricotta, and mozzarella to parmesan and pecorino.

Tomatoes - well pasta is Italian so of course there are tomatoes.

Chilli - very common and mostly in the form of chilli flakes or chopped real chilli. We won't of course be have chilli with our cauliflower because David doesn't like it. Though I could stir some crushed chilli in mine I guess.

Nuts - again lots of different kinds. To give a final crunch so usually toasted. Pine nuts, walnuts, almonds ... And toasted or fried breadcrumbs for the same reason.

Cream, milk and the pasta water - all to make it creamy and smooth.

Anchovies and sardines - to add a bit of bite - the anchovies more often than the sardines.

Bacon - yes goes really well.

Capers - bite for a bland vegetable.

Fresh herbs - I saw basil, parsley (mostly parsley) and oregano and thyme. Rosemary too. The Mediterranean herbs I suppose and lots of them.

Currants - for the Sicilian dishes - and there are a few because the Sicilians are big into cauliflower - introduced to them by the Arabs. They are also into the sweet and sour thing.

Mushrooms - another kind of bland to match the bland of cauliflower.

So back to the methods.

Roast your cauliflower first seems to be a favourite thing to do. Sometimes just with oil, but sometimes with other things - olives, chilli, garlic, baco ... The simplest way of using your cauliflower is just to toss your roasted ingredients with the pasta and sprinkle with cheese - or breadcrumbs or nuts.

Some examples of this are Donna Hay's Roasted cauliflower, olive and garlic pasta, (at left)

or Roasted cauliflower pasta with toasted walnuts, parsley, garlic and lemon zest (at right) from a website called Feasting at Home. delicious has a recipe that includes pesto and spinach and somehow looks more like a salad. (below).

Yotam Ottolenghi has a Sicilian version that includes saffron, vinegar, capers, sugar, currants, celery and pine nuts - sweet and sour version that is typical for that island. And I didn't know he had an Italian father. I thought Ottolenghi sounded vaguely Middle Eastern, but no it's Italian. (below)

And as you can see from the pictures - as with all of the dishes in this post - any kind of pasta is good. Your choice.

Second method - a variation on lasagne, macaroni cheese or even cannelloni. A sort of hybrid cauliflower cheese really. In these versions your ingredients are usually all combined together, whacked into a baking dish with a sauce - tomato or cheese, sprinkled with cheese and baked in the oven. Oh and the cauliflower is usually cooked first. It seems like a bit of a wastel to roast the cauliflower first, but I guess you could.

Some examples:

From the BBC you have this version which includes bacon. (at left) And apologies for using Donna Hay again, but she has an interesting - and different - lasagne which includes sweet potato and eggplant. (below)

And Jamie Oliver, who loves all things Italian has a cauliflower and broccoli cannelloni recipe. And being Jamie it has 'incredible' in its title. (below)

Then you slide from the baked versions to the carbonara and other creamy sauce versions of which Jack Monroe's bacon and carbonara recipe is a good example and may well be the one I try tonight. I've never really mastered carbonara so I might give it another go.

Really you can devise any kind of sauce though - a tomato sauce, mushroom, cheese, pesto , mix it with your pasta and then either just eat as is or finish it off under the grill or top with fried or toasted breadcrumbs. Which is really the version I mostly use. I did see a variation of the very simple cacio e pepe recipe - pepper being the other main ingredient here. (below)

And Delia has a simple cheese sauce that is combined with crème fraiche to make a comforting and creamy dish.

Or you can simply cook and mash the cauliflower to make a sauce - flavoured with whatever you fancy.

Then there are the very quick and easy ones where you either cook the cauliflower with the pasta and mix with your other ingredients or fry it with something else that you then toss with your pasta - no sauce as such but more a kind of stir fry.

Tobie Puttock has a Sicilian version that includes sardines and anchovies (at left) and Jamie Oliver does mushrooms and ricotta. (below)

I'll give the last word to Donna Hay again though, as in some ways she seems to have been the most inventive. In her version the cauliflower is crunched up in a food processor with pine nuts and then fried with a few other things before tossing with the pasta. I don't think anyone else did that. It looks yummy. Maybe I should try that.

So there you have it - cauliflower and pasta. Endless variations. I have so many before me that it's hard to make a choice, but I really should try something different this time.

I guess this has been a bit of a boring list in a way but I do think it's a fascinating example of how just two ingredients can inspire people to do so many different things with them - well, in a way it's just one ingredient that you mess around with. The pasta is a given.