Pasta with cauliflower
( Pasta con cavolfiore )

Pasta with cauliflower recipe

Preparation and cooking

• - Clean cauliflower and break off its florets.
• - Wash and steam it.
• - Let it cool and then cut into smaller pieces.
• - Cook the pasta you've chosen "al dente" stage.
• - Meanwhile put olive oil in a non-stick frying pan.
• - Then add anchovy fillets, capers, chili pepper and cauliflower.
• - Let all ingredients flavor on low heat stirring now and then, few minutes.
• - Drain pasta and transfer it into the pan.
• - Let all ingredients flavor on high heat, stirring with delicacy, a minute.

Just before serving

• - Serve this pasta dish hot.
• - Put on the table a little bowl with grated Parmesan cheese.
  So everyone will be able to sprinkle it on the top according his own taste.

Note

Tips

• - You can use the kind of short pasta you prefer. We like penne for pasta with cauliflower.
• - The pasta with cauliflower can have a different look. It depends on your personal taste.
  Some people love crunchy vegetables and take care to keep the cauliflower florets whole.
  On the contrary tThere are those who, like us, love cooking cauliflower longer and therefore make a creamier sauce as you can see in the photo.
  It 's just a matter of cooking cauliflower.
• - Obviously this is a dish poor in ingredients and made according to our tastes (Carlo and me).
  In some regions of Southern Italy people prepare pasta with cauliflower using orecchiette and different cooking techniques.
  They cook the cauliflower in boiling water for a few minutes and then add the pasta too.
  Apart they fry slightly garlic in oil together with 30g (1 ounce) diced bacon, a piece of chili, 40g (1 1/2 ounce) black olives and some anchovy fillets in oil (you can also use anchovies in salt).
  At the end they transfer the pasta and cauliflower, once drained well, in this sauce to flavor all the ingredients. Instead of using Parmesan they serve pecorino cheese.
  Obviously the nutrition facts change a lot ​​because the dish is enriched with ingredients.
  We prefer not to cook the cauliflower with pasta because, according to our taste, the cauliflower is a bit ... too wet. But everyone has his own taste ... ;)))

Menu planning

• - Complete your meal with boiled or raw seasonal vegetables, topped with 2 teaspoons olive oil, or with seasonal fruit.
  So you can have healthy food according to the Mediterranean diet.

Healthy eating

• - Daily menu. In the nutrition facts there is no grated Parmesan cheese.
  Serve pasta with cauliflower for lunch.
  I remember pasta should be eaten preferably at lunch and the calories eaten at lunch should be 500 - 700 (30 - 35% of energy needs for an adult if his daily needs are about 2000 calories and he correctly divides his calories into 5 micro-meals).
  Here are the doses per head: 70 g (2 1/2 ounces) short pasta, 350g (12 1/3 ounces) cauliflower, 2 anchovy fillets in oil, 1 tablespoon capers in vinegar, 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil.
• - Seated lunch with friends. I think this isn't a pasta dish to choose when you have guests unless you don't invite somebody with similar taste.
• - If you want to drink a glass of wine remember you have to add 80-85 kCal per 100 ml.
• - I remember you our original home recipes can be made without salt; there is a combination of flavors that substitutes salt.

Loretta

What's the right wine for " Pasta with cauliflower "?

Carlo and I usually pair Nero d'Avola or Corvo rosso (red wines from Sicily) with cauliflower pasta.