Pasta cooked with lightly roasted cauliflower florets in tomato sauce, anchovies, onions, garlic, persil and Parmesan.

Move on to kale, cauliflower is now the “it girl” these days. There are so many wonderful dishes you can make with it!

These simple pasta with cauliflower, tomatoes and Parmesan are an excellent example of this. I adapted the recipe of a Sicilian recipe by Vincent Schiavelli, which appeared in Taste years ago.

It’s outrageously good; I’ve been eating the leftovers for days, which seem to improve as the flavors have more time to mix.

The secret ingredient ?

Anchovy.

Ok, so I’m weird. I am one of those people to whom you can say “cauliflower” and “anchovies”, and I will start drooling. I take cauliflower in what way (although the roast imho is best) and anchovies?

Well, anchovies are a childhood prejudice (“keep the anchovies!”) Fortunately, I have crossed the boundaries. (Luckily with my childhood anti-opera and country music feelings, too. What is it that children do not like things before they have tried them?)

No, the anchovies do not give this dish the taste of the fish. However, they give it an indescribable taste (umami), which will make you want to eat the whole dish.

Updated with new photos from the recipe archive. Published for the first time in November 2009.

Variants of this recipe are the addition of roasted pine nuts or walnuts, a few raisins and / or saffron.
* To make breadcrumbs, chop about 3 slices of bread for a day. Pulse in a blender or food processor until you have small crumbs.

Ingredient

• 1 cup fresh breadcrumbs*
• 6 Tablespoons extra olive oil, divided, 2 and 4 tablespoons
• 1 chopped onion (about 1 1/2 cup)
• 2 Tablespoons anchovies wrapped in oil, chopped (about 6 anchovies)
• 1 Cauliflower with a large head, heart removed and discarded, coarsely chopped bouquets (see Cutting And
• Heart of cauliflower)
• 5 Garlic cloves, chopped
• 1/2 Teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (more or less to taste)
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3 Tablespoons tomato paste
• 1/2 Pound small macaroni on the elbow
• 1 Can of whole 15-ounce tomatoes, chopped or diced, including juice
• 1/4 cup chopped italian persil
• 1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

Method

Toast breadcrumbs:

Toast the crumbs in a small amount of olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat until lightly browned. Remove the crumbs from the pan and set aside.

Fry onions with garlic and anchovies:

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add onions, garlic and anchovies.

Crush the anchovies with the back of a spoon so that they coat the onions well. Cook for 5 minutes until the onions are soft. Remove onions from the pan and set aside.

While you are cooking the onions, put a large pot of salted water (1 tablespoon of salt per 2 liters of water) so that the pasta boils on the stove.

Sauteed cauliflower florets:

Heat 4 tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add the cauliflower, stirring rarely, and let the edges of the cauliflower turn brown. Cook until the cauliflower florets are lightly browned, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the red pepper flakes to the pan, salt and pepper.

Add tomato paste, tomatoes, onion mixture:

Dissolve the tomato paste in 1/2 cup of water. Reduce heat to low heat. Add tomato paste, tomatoes, onion, garlic and anchovies, stir to mix well.

Cook uncovered over low heat until the cauliflower is soft.

Boil pasta, add to the cauliflower mixture:

Cook the pasta, uncovered, in boiling salted water until just al dente, following the instructions for cooking the pasta packaging. Drain the pasta from the cooking water and add the cooked pasta to the cauliflower mixture.

Stir in about half of the persil, breadcrumbs and Parmesan (leave the rest on top for the filling).

Makes excellent leftovers, as the flavors have more time to mix.