Cauliflower Pasta

This is a Sicilian inspired dish that is slightly sweet, with a buttery, nutty flavour coming from the pine nuts. Yes, it’s vege, but you’d never know from the richness of it. Once you have a couple of recipes like this under your belt, you will be able to improvise anything - lots of staples from the fridge or pantry can be thrown together to make something like this. Sundried tomatoes, anchovies, olives, white wine, almonds, lemon zest etc can all be added to bring other flavours.

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Cauliflower Pasta

Yield: 4

Author: Lucas

This cauliflower pasta is a beautifully rustic Sicilian‑style dish that balances savory depth with gentle sweetness and aromatic warmth.

Ingredients

• 1 Cauliflower, broken into florets
• 1 Tbs Olive Oil
• 1 pinch Saffron, soaked in 1 Tbs boiling water
• 1 Onion, diced
• 2 cloves Garlic, crushed, chopped or sliced as to your preference
• 1 Tbs Capers
• 1 tsp chilli flakes, or 1 fresh chilli, sliced/diced
• 1/3 cup Raisins
• 1/3 cup Pine Nuts, toasted
• 450g Long Pasta, fresh or dried
• Lemon Juice
• 1 Handful Parsley, chopped
• Pangritata, or Parmesan to sprinkle

Instructions

1. Prepare all ingredients first, this will make it easier.
2. Put a saucepan of water on the stove, and bring to the boil.
3. While that is coming to the boil, put a large frypan on the stove and heat on medium.
4. When the frypan is heated, add the oil and the onion and sweat them for about 5 minutes, until the onion is soft.
5. About 3-4 minutes into the sweating of onions, add the cauliflower to the boiling water.
6. Then add the garlic, chilli and capers into the onions and stir for another minute.
7. Add the raisins, saffron/water, pine nuts to the frypan and check the cauliflower.
8. If Cauliflower is just tender, transfer it to the frypan - use a slotted spoon and keep the pot of water for boiling your pasta.
9. Add the pasta to the boiling water, while mixing everything in the frypan.
10. Once the pasta is cooked, add it to the frypan and toss to combine. Add some pasta water too to loosen it up.
11. Serve, and squeeze lemon juice over the dish, and add the parsley and pangritata or cheese.

Notes

Toasting

saffron

pangratatta