TWICE COOKED CAULIFLOWER WITH WHOLE CHILLI, GARLIC AND MINT
I love cooking with my kids, but perhaps now more than ever before, I really feel the importance of needing to get my eldest daughter up to speed with some easy and delicious - feed a crowd - dishes that will stand her in good stead for when she comes to leave home in September (I am not crying, there is something in my eye!)
This is not an expensive dish to make, granted, you’ll need quite a bit of olive oil to really get the flavours to develop nicely together, so be it, the rest of the ingredients are all fairly thirty. By bulking up the quantity made with some cooked pasta, you’re making an incredibly tasty dish, one that you’ve eked an awful lot of flavour in with all your cookery skill.
TOP TIP. You can cook the whole cauliflower like so, then keep it in the fridge for up to 3 or 4 days and use portions as you go, on toast, it is the quickest lunch going.
INGREDIENTS
1 very large cauliflower, broken down
1 whole bulb of garlic, peeled and broken in cloves
1 tbsp fennel seeds
1 large juicy lemon, zest and juice
Large bunch of mint, roughly chopped, or use parsley
Whole dried chilli, to taste
Olive oil, you’ll need quite a bit here
Salt and pepper, generous
Pecorino, or use parmesan
Also nice, anchovies, optional
Also nice, pine nuts or walnuts, optional
Pasta, optional serving suggestion
METHOD
Break down the cauliflower. Add the garlic and fennel seeds to a large pan of well salted water and boil for 2 minutes, first add the trimmed stalks, then add the florets, then add the leaves. Boil the lot for around 4 minutes until just tender. Drain, don’t worry if you lose some of the feel seeds, equally so, good if some still stick to all the cauliflower.
Whip out the boiled whole garlic and roughly chop. Add at least 4 tbsp of olive oil to a wide pan with a tight fitting lid. Add the boiled chopped garlic and whole dried chilli, fry for 1 minute over moderate heat. Add the drained cauliflower, lemon peel, pinch more salt and dash more olive oil. Lid on and cook over moderate / low heat for around 15 - 20 minutes, scrape from time to time, until the cauliflower is very soft and broken down. Remove from the heat.
Add the lemon juice, mint, check the seasoning, you might want more olive oil, salt and pepper too, the soft cooked cauliflower likes a lot of olive oil and to be seasoned well. Add the mint. It’s good to eat from this point (fried egg, feta, on garlic rubbed toast, as a mezze dish with roughly chopped walnuts and more olive oil etc etc)
Or, cook some pasta to your liking, keeping a cup back of the well salted pasta cooking water, add the cauliflower to the cooked pasta and stir through with enough of the pasta cooking water to coat well. Add plenty of grated pecorino, and maybe some more olive oil to serve.