I have never liked cauliflower.
There, I said it. Will I lose my food blogging license? It doesn't matter: the truth must out. I can do broccoli, fine, but cauliflower has always seemed too... sulfur-y. There has always been something to cauliflower that reminded me of hard-boiled eggs, which also are not too dear to my heart. Besides, every way I have had it cooked, it is either stalky and tough or a complete mush-fest. Not, as Saint Alton would say, good eats.
But cauliflower is such a winter staple, and as a vegetarian I feel a certain duty to actually try different vegetables from time to time (I can't eat peas in everything, Wife will remind me), so I decided that I should figure out how to make cauliflower delicious. Did I succeed? Well, no one was more shocked than I when yesterday in the grocery store, I made a beeline for the cauliflower and popped a head of it in the cart. Gleefully, I might add.
Don't believe me? I dare you to try this and not want seconds. Go ahead. Try it.
Roasted Cauliflower with Ricotta and Peas
Inspired by cauliflower 'pasta' with peas and ricotta by Jules at Stonesoup.
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| Shown here on top of some puffy pancake, but it's just as good on its own. |
1 head cauliflower, cut like so
1 TB olive oil
2 clove garlic, minced
pinch of red pepper flakes
1/2 onion, minced
2 cups frozen peas, thawed (if you don't share my enthusiasm for peas, you can reduce or eliminate this)
2 cups ricotta
1 cup or so parmesan, shredded
1. Cut up your cauliflower all neat-like and saute in the olive oil in a nice big pan until they soften.
2. Add the garlic, red pepper flakes, onion, and peas to the party. Saute on medium-high until brown and tender.
3. Kill the heat but leave on the burner and add the ricotta. It will take a little convincing to stir through, but it'll behave once it's heated through.
4. Taste, season, and add the parmesan to your liking.
5. Devour. If you included the peas--congratulations. You've just had two servings of veg. MAGIC.
Finally, after all these years, the truth comes out. Based on how you used to clean the plate when I made pasta with cauliflower, I could have sworn you liked it! Live and learn. Since I, on the other hand, love cauliflower, I will have to try this new recipe!
ReplyDeleteI passed over the on-sale cauliflower this week because I didn't know how to cook it, but this might be worth stopping back by the store.
ReplyDeleteI saw something for fried cauliflower the other day. Thought it had some promise.
ReplyDelete@Dad: Clearly you employed some sort of culinary wizardry. Or American cooks so frequently butchered the stuff that I couldn't remember ever enjoying it.
ReplyDeleteNo culinary wizardry--just lots and lots of cheese. I am eating the pasta and cauliflower for lunch today, by the way. Just cook cauliflower and spagetti (or other pasta) in separate pots. While it is cooking, shred lots of Cheddar and Parmasan cheese and warm up a jar of pasta sauce with a bay leaf added. When the pasta and the cauliflower are done, mix everything together. The heat from the hot pasta and cauliflower melts the cheeses. Quick and yummy!
ReplyDelete@Dad Cheese is clearly the ultimate in culinary wizardry.
ReplyDelete