"Sort of Sicilian" Pasta with cauliflower, and....

This is another one of those recipes that has an origin, and has a classic formula. And I have made it that way, and it's terrific. Much to my surprise, people loved it and ask for it. And, like many great recipes, it stands up to playing around with, as you'll find out.
One of the things I learned, in the last ten years, is that Southern Italians eat a lot of cauliflower "cavolo fiori," or "cabbage flowers." Cabbage and cauliflower fall into the same category of vegetables, but ask yourself if you think of cauliflower as an Italian vegetable? I certainly didn't.
My theory about why that is, is that we Americans simply do not much like it. And my theory about that, is that it's because it is not cooked properly, sort of like most of the cruciferous vegetables like cabbage, broccoli, brussel sprouts, and so forth. Too little water, and cooking for too long, produces that incredibly strong, sulfur smell that turns people off - with good reason. And let's not mention, the, ahem, flatulence problem.
I will confess that for years I was not too fond of it myself. My turnaround seems to have come when the new strains of cauliflower, with their golden color, became available. They taste the same - they really do. Somehow, however, the golden colored cauliflower seems to be richer, and more buttery. Don't they say we eat with our eyes? Well, more people have told me that the cauliflower purees I make with the golden ones are "SO SO RICH. How much butter and cream did you use?" Uh, none. Just water, and salt. No one believes me. Fine. It's all good.

Anyway, moving on. One of the classic recipes in Sicilian cooking is pasta with cauliflower, bread crumbs, currants, and onions. The vegetables are cooked to the point where they carmelize, the bread crumbs are toasted, the currants are tossed in, and at the end, you dress it with olive oil.

This preparation is, without question, one of the most popular dishes I make. If you wanted an explanation why, I couldn't tell you. So I won't make up stories.

Now, one of the other vegetables that you will always find associated with Sicily, is fennel "finocchio." You've seen it, the thing that looks like celery with asparagus fronds, and tastes a bit like licorice? It's quite a dandy l ooking vegetable, which is perhaps why "finocchio" was Italian slang for "faggot." My teacher tells me that today, using it is very old fashioned, and folks just say "gay" instead. Somehow, that makes me feel like the language is getting impoverished. A bit sad.

Ok, I should stick to cooking. Anyway, one night, I had a bunch of fennel that was threatening to go bad, a head of cauliflower, and of course, bread crumbs and currants. It was cold, it was rainy, it felt like WINTER, and away we went.

This is another dish that calls for a shaped pasta. I think penne is traditional, but shells will work, so will orecchiete, anything that is sort of the size of a cauliflower floret. Here we go.

Cut up a small head of cauliflower, or half of a large head. Take the florets, and save the stems to make a soup or something like that, or puree. Also take a medium sized bulb of fennel. Cut away the fronds and the tough stems, and dice that.

Mix those together, and put them into a large frying pan, to which you have added a nice amount of olive oil: more than enough to cover the pan, but not enough to float the vegetables. Let the vegetables sit. Try not to stir them for a bit. Let them darken, and carmelize. Both will get sweeter from this process. When they darken, then you can turn them and cook them a little more. Add some salt as you go along.

After they're cooked, put them in a bowl, to the side, and add a bit more olive oil - say three tablespoons - and add half a cup or so of flavored bread crumbs. Saute' these just until they brown. Get them out of the pan, in a separate bowl. Now, get your currants ready - no more than about a quarter cup - and put them aside as well. You can mix them with either of the two things you've prepared.

Boil up a pound of pasta in the usual, rapidly boiling salted water, and as it's going along, scoop out about 3/4 of a cup of the cooking water. Keep it at the ready, after you drain the pasta. Get it back in the pot, and add everything except the bread crumbs (if you've mixed the currants with the crumbs, no problem. Save them back too). Add the water, if you need it, to create a sort of little sauce, or if the veggies still seem to hard. Let this cook for 2-3 minutes and then off the heat, stir in the crumbs. When you portion it out, pour some peppery olive oil over it.

NO CHEESE in this dish. The crumbs are supposed to approximate the cheese. And you've got a winter dinner in a plate.


This is fairly substantial for a vegetarian dish. Serve less than you think you'll need. And save the leftovers. They are terrific cold.

Ho fame. I think I need this, NOW