Tag: Pasta with cauliflower

PASTA RIMESTATA COI CAVOFIORI – Pasta with cauliflower, sultanas, pine nuts and anchovies

Pasta with cauliflower, sultanas or currants, pine nuts, anchovies and saffron is a Sicilian specialty with flavours that are unique to Sicily.  The recipe for this pasta dish is from my book, Sicilian Seafood Cooking (now out of print).

In the Sicilian  language the recipe is called : Pasta chi brocculi arriminata. In Italian = Pasta rimestata coi cavolfiori.

Rimestata, seems like a fancy word, but it just means stirred. 

In English, I have described this as Pasta with cauliflower, sultanas/currants, pine nuts and anchovies. 

In Italian the word for cauliflower is cavolfiore. Just to be different, the Sicilian name for cauliflower is brocculi.  

In Sicily coloured cauliflowers are the most common (unfortunately most of the colour fades when they are cooked). As well as the familiar white or cheddar (pale yellow) varieties, there are beautiful purple ones (cavolfiore viola in Italian) that range in colour from pink through violet to dark purple. A friend  in Australia is growing a variety called purple cape cauliflower and one that is light green and pink called cavolfiore romanesco precoce. 

There are also the bright, pale green ones and a sculpted, pointy pale green variety called Roman cauliflower; I have seen these in Rome and throughout Tuscany.

Every time I cook this pasta dish, there is great applause from guests.

Over time recipes evolve and each time I make it I  may vary it slightly, mainly by increasing the amounts of some of the ingredients, for example: I tend to use more bayleaves, pine nuts, anchovies (for people who like them and remove them for those who do not).

I also like to add some fresh fennel (at the same time as I place the cauliflower into the pan) and a little stock and sometimes white wine.

I present the pasta with both pecorino cheese and fried breadcrumbs. Sometimes I add cubes of feta or ricotta whipped with a little pepper. Feta is Greek, but I like it as it adds creaminess to the dish.

The ingredients and the method of cooking the pasta with cauliflower below is how the recipe appears in the book. The recommended  amount of pasta is 100g per person. In our household this is far too much and 500g of pasta is OK as first course for 6-8 people. As with all recipes I hope that you  vary it to suit your tastes. 

500g dry, short pasta

2 tablespoons sultanas or currants 

1 medium cauliflower

1 large onion, chopped

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

4–5 anchovies, finely chopped

2 bay leaves

1 tablespoon fennel seeds

2 tablespoons pine nuts

1 small teaspoon saffron soaked in a little warm water

grated pecorino and/ or toasted breadcrumbs

salt and crushed dried chillies (optional) to taste

Soak the sultanas or currants in a cup of warm water. To prepare the cauliflower, remove the outer green leaves and break the cauliflower into small florets.

In a frying pan large enough to accommodate all the ingredients, saute the chopped onion in the olive oil. Add the anchovies and let them melt in the oil, stirring with a wooden spoon. Then add the cauliflower florets, bay leaves and the fennel seeds. Stir gently over the heat to colour and coat the vegetable with oil.

Add the pine nuts, the saffron (and water) and the sultanas or currants with the soaking water, salt and crushed chillies.

At this stage I add a splash of white wine and a little stock. Cover, and allow to cook gently for about 20 minutes, until the florets are soft.

Cook the pasta. Drain and toss with the cauliflower sauce. Coat the pasta evenly and allow to absorb the flavours for about 5 minutes. Serve with toasted breadcrumbs or grated pecorino cheese.

The breadcrumbs add texture and flavour.  Over time, instead of tossing coarse breadcrumbs, (100 grams made with day old, quality bread  – sourdough/pasta dura) lightly fried in some extra virgin olive oil, I also add grated lemon peel, a little cinnamon and sugar to the breadcrumbs while they are being toasted.

Below: Breadcrumbs served separately.

For another iconic Sicilian Pasta dish with similar flavours see:

PASTA CON LE SARDE (SARDINES)

PASTA CON SARDE; the baked version, Palermo, Sicily

 

PASTA con cavolofiore, salsicce di maiale e ceci (pasta with cauliflower, pork sausages and chickpeas)

Pasta with cauliflower, pork fennel sausages, chickpeas,  fennel seeds, fresh bay leaves, saffron and marinated feta is one simple dish that I prepared for friends during a very busy time of year.

Not all the food has been elaborate or take a long time to cook and can tastes just as delicious. All the ingredients are easily found, and this too makes a difference to one’s sanity.

Short pasta is preferable and I used penne. Pecorino, being a stronger tasting cheese is better with these ingredients than Parmesan, but although feta is not an Italian cheese I often use it as a topping for pasta .

This pasta dish is simple to make.

Begin with sausages (out of casings) and onion sautéed in a little extra virgin olive oil.

Soak a big pinch of  saffron in a little water and set aside.

To the sautéed sausages add cauliflower, separated into smaller pieces,  fennel seeds and fresh bay leaves and toss around in the hot oil.  Add the saffron (that  has been soaking in a little water).

Add chickpeas and a little chickpea stock, cover and cook on moderate to gentle heat.

Combine it with cooked pasta and top with the feta. The feta will soften and will make  the pasta more creamy.

 

MARINADED FETA

Marinated feta comes in handy for nibbles as well as using it as a creamy substitute for grated cheese.  Like marinated olives, capers and preserved lemons, this is something that is nearly always in my fridge. and believe you me, it comes in very handy.

Ingredients: feta, dry oregano, fennel seeds, whole black peppercorns, bay leaves  and extra virgin olive oil. The cheese must be  totally submerged. Store it in the fridge.

 

CHICKPEAS and simple food

Let’s make the most of simple, healthy food — chickpeas.

We do not need perfectly stocked pantries to cook satisfying meals. Some of the best dishes come from using what we already have on hand and allowing simple ingredients to shine.

I always keep chickpeas and other pulses in my pantry and freezer. I soak dried pulses overnight, change the water, add bay leaves, or rosemary, or sage, or thyme and then cook them slowly over low heat.THe different herbs will impart a different taste.

Once cooked, I transfer the surplus into glass jars, cover them with their cooking liquid and store them in the freezer. They are nutritious, economical and always ready to use.

Chickpeas have long been central to Mediterranean cooking, especially in Italy, where they appear in soups, pasta dishes and rustic contorni. They are humble ingredients, but deeply satisfying.

Here are  some very different dishes using chickpeas — both simple, improvised and full of flavour.

Would these dishes belong to particular Italian regions? Perhaps not directly. But the ingredients and cooking methods certainly sit comfortably within Italian and Mediterranean traditions. The cauliflower pasta especially feels connected to the type of food my mother would have cooked — practical, seasonal and deeply nourishing.

Pasta with Cauliflower and Chickpeas

This pasta dish came together with ingredients I already had at home: chickpeas, cauliflower, passata, herbs and chilli.

The herb I used was nepitella, which grows abundantly on my balcony at this time of year. Oregano, basil, thyme, marjoram or parsley would all work beautifully.

The cauliflower was the common white variety — inexpensive, easy to find and a vegetable that keeps well in the fridge. I prefer spring onions to regular onions for their gentler flavour, but either can be used. There was also garlic and homemade stock involved, because there are always jars of broth in my freezer.

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The method was straightforward and very Italian in spirit. I began with extra virgin olive oil, garlic and spring onion gently sautéed. The cauliflower followed, then stock, herbs, seasoning and just enough passata to lightly colour the dish. Everything simmered slowly until tender and fragrant.

I cooked the short pasta separately, though I could easily have added extra stock and cooked the pasta directly in the sauce. I wanted this to be a softer, slightly brothy pasta dish — comforting and rustic.

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Chickpeas with pasta.

Chickpeas with Saffron, Mushrooms and Eggplant

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Chickpeas, saffron, mushrooms and eggplants.

The second dish was more improvised.There is no traditional name because it simply evolved from what I had in the fridge at the time. That is often how good home cooking begins.

I sautéed spring onion in olive oil, added whole mushrooms, then chickpeas and strips of eggplant. Saffron went in for warmth and colour, along with marjoram from the balcony garden. The liquid was the chickpea cooking broth itself — rich, earthy and too good to waste.

Before serving, I added fresh mint for brightness.

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Cooking with What We Have

Being creative in my kitchen gives me much pleasure. One of the reasons I enjoy camping or cooking in Airbnbs while travelling is that I cannot rely on having every ingredient or every kitchen tool available. There is creativity in limitation.

You adapt. You improvise. You cook with what is there.

And often those meals become the most memorable.

I MUST LIKE CHICKPEAS – RECIPES:

CECI (CHICKPEAS) IN SICILIA: Cucina Povera

PASTA con cavolofiore, salsicce di maiale e ceci (pasta with cauliflower, pork sausages and chickpeas)

MUSSELS WITH CHICKPEAS

VESPERS and a celebration of chickpeas in BACCALÀ CON CECI alla fiorentina (Salt Cod with Chickpeas as cooked in Florence)

CHICKPEAS SOUP WITH WILD FENNEL (Minestra di ceci con finocchio, erba selvatica)