Loving Cauliflower

It is well-known today that the cabbage family is good for us: all the cruciferous vegetables are high in vitamin C and antioxidant nutrients, they help us boost our detox and anti-inflammatory system. Many good reasons to befriend them.

I personally like them very much and here is it a recipe that my brother Francesco gave: it comes straight from Sicily!

I adapted it using gluten free pasta and in particular I chose the organic brand Felicia Bio – 100% buckwheat. I love Felicia but if you can’t find it in your country or town, you can easily use another pasta that you like.

Take a large pan, put it over low heat, and roast the pine nuts until they turn gently gold. Once it is done, put them aside.

On the same time, soak the raisins in one glass of water – in this way they will become soft again. It takes 15 to 20 minutes. After drain the water and put the raisins aside.

Let’s chop the onion in thin slices and fry it gently in a large pan with extra virgin olive oil over low eat.

Add the anchovies and let them stir in delicately until they blend with the onion and the onion turns gold.

Cut the cauliflower in small pieces and cook it in a large pot with water and salt. Cooking time depends on the cauliflower you bought. You know that it is ready when you can easily insert a fork in it.

Once it is cooked, keep the water and take the cauliflower out from the pot.

Put it in the pan with the onion and the anchovies so that it will absorb all of their flavour and aromas. Stir for a couple of minutes over high heat.

Use the same water where you just cooked the cauliflower to cook the pasta, it will enhance the pasta flavour.

When you cook the pasta, I always suggest to start tasting it after the 4th minute of cooking, and to check it out regularly until it turns exactly the way you like it – mine took about 7 minutes to be “al dente”.

Drain the pasta and put it in the pan with the cauliflower over high heat. Stir gently for a couple of minutes.

Turn off the heat.

To compose your dish add the roasted pine nuts, the raisins, one tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil per dish and grate the skin of a fresh lemon.

I loved this recipe: the salty taste of the anchovies marries beautifully with the sweet of the red onions and the raisins. The roasted pine nuts and the lemon skin are just the cherry on the cake!

It leaves you with a sensation of freshness which very nice when you eat cauliflowers.

Buon appetito!

If you have any questions about this recipe, please don’t hesitate to ask me. I will be more than happy to come back to you.