This is a very quick pasta I make all winter long. I almost ALWAYS have the ingredients on hand. The pantry items are:
- -Pasta (of course)
- -Anchovies (in the fridge but you get the idea)
- -Red pepper flakes
- -Olive oil (buckets of it in our house)
- -Cauliflower (it’s my emergency-lasts-forever-in-the-back-of-the-fridge vegetable)
I’m almost embarrassed to publish this recipe since it’s such a ‘non’ recipe. This is definitely the pasta I make most when I’m on my own, starving, but also trying just a bit to cut back on things like cheese and pasta. Because the charm of this pasta (besides tasting great) is that it can be as healthy as you’d like it to be.
First of all the ‘no cheese’ part of things. This dish gets its zing from an abundance of anchovies. This means that:
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- If you don’t like anchovies, please move on to another recipe
- The Italians will put you in jail if you put cheese on your anchovy-laden pasta
Also, the other part of this recipe that kind of puts it in the healthy eating side of the menu is that you can play around with the ratio of vegetable to pasta. The standard portion of pasta per person is 100 grams (3 oz) but with this recipe you can cut it back by half and I swear to god you’ll never miss it. (on the other hand, if you’re on team more, double the amount of pasta and you’re still getting at least one of your daily servings of vegetables while ALSO having as much pasta as you want.)
And if all this doesn’t convince you, it’s pretty much a one pot dish. So minimal clean up.
If you do end up making more than you can eat (when does that ever happen with pasta?) you can heat it up the next day by putting in the oven topped with breadcrumbs and a bit of olive oil.
For this dish I always use short pasta, usually rigatoni if I have it, but also penne or even wheels or bow ties. And this is one of the few occasions where I actually prefer some type of whole grain pasta. Since so much depends on the quality of your anchovies, please try to use your best here.
Cauliflower + Anchovy Pasta
Yield 4
Note: I love the pairing of cauliflower with anchovies, but it works well with other vegetables. Fennel cut in chunks or broccoli are good options.
Ingredients
- 1 large head of Cauliflower, but in small florets
- 400 grams / 14 oz short pasta (whole grain rigatoni if you have it)
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 4 cloves garlic, crushed
- Red pepper flakes to taste
- 8 - 10 anchovies, chopped
- 1/2 cup chopped parsley
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Add the pasta and then, after 3 minutes add the cauliflower. If you’re using pasta that takes a long time to cook, you may want to wait 5 minutes to add the cauliflower. You definitely want the cauliflower to be well cooked.
- In the meantime in a large bowl pour the olive oil. Add the garlic, red pepper and anchovies. Using a wooden spoon, break the anchovies up, mixing them with the oil and garlic to form a kind of ‘dressing’.
- When pasta is cooked al dente , drain, reserving a cup of the cooking water. Add the drained pasta and cauliflower to the bowl, mixing well. If it seems too dry, add a bit of the cooking water. But you probably won’t need to, since the cauliflower is wet already. Add the parsley and serve with more hot pepper for those that want it.
For more Italian meal ideas see my book The Italian Table.
And if you’d like to join me in Italy, eating food like this, you can. See this page for our upcoming Week in Italy Tours.
Proper comfort food. This is my go-to pasta dish, too! Unfortunately, my husband is a vegetarian😢 but I love anchovies. He doesn’t know what he’s missing!
Try it with miso!!
I am making this tomorrow night w a few riffs of my own and Melissa Clark’s. I roast the (back of the fridge) cauliflower, default to anchovy paste, lots of lemon zest, and 😱 cheese!