Friday, December 10, 2010

Pasta with romanesco cauliflower and prosciutto


Last Wednesday night, I had a few friends over for dinner.

I this has been a dream of mine for some time. This may seem strange to many of you who do not live in one of the five boroughs of New York City. However, I live in Brooklyn, and making space for a dining table and guests never seemed like a realistic possibility.

The Thanksgiving furniture shuffle showed me it was possible: we moved the sofa into the office to make a guest room, and moved the desk from the office into the living room for a table. Voila! A little more pushing of dressers and chairs and scratching up the floor a bit, and we had a dining room. It's my first.

The dinner was to reciprocate a dinner that my friends Nick and Dane had prepared a few weeks before. It was a lot to live up to: a delicious cheese plate as a first course, followed by a perfect risotto with shrimp and sweet peas topped with pesto. So very good.

The dinner left me feeling full, satisfied, and competitive. I felt the need to be impressive in return. And thrifty. Christmas shopping has been stretching me a little thin.

I hardly ever make pasta because of Noel's wheat allergy. In fact, I don't think I've bought any traditional pasta for at least five years. So real pasta feels decadent to me--a kind of luxury food that I don't have very often. I'll bet a lot of you feel the same way about it because of the carb fear factor. The fact that many of us don't eat pasta on a regular basis anymore makes it, I think, a great thing to make when you have guests over: it's the sort of thing everyone enjoys but rarely makes for themselves. And what better time to indulge a bit than during this bitingly cold weather?

Since the pasta itself is inexpensive, I added some more premium ingredients: prosciutto and romanesco cauliflower. Romanesco cauliflower is a vivid pale green, and instead of forming itself into cloud-like clumps, it grows in astoundingly symmetrical, psychedelic cones. Their beautiful color, matched with the deep meaty pinkness of the prosciutto, makes a beautiful plate. They are very much in season, and can be found in your local farmers market.

The addition of anchovies into the garlic oil does not produce a fishy flavor at all, but rather an earthy saltiness that would not be achieved by only adding salt. I highly recommend you try using them. You can find anchovy fillets packed in olive oil in most supermarkets.

The bread crumbs add an extra bite of texture, as well as a bit of herb and spice. They are easy to make at home. Tear a baguette into 1-2 inch cubes, and toast in a 325 degree oven for about 20 minutes, until toasty and dry. Allow to cool, then place in a plastic freezer bag and smush with a rolling pin to create crumbs. To add flavor, saute two mined garlic cloves in 2 tbsp olive oil, then remove from heat an stir in 1 tbsp red pepper flakes and 1/4 cup chopped parsley. Add bread crumbs and return pan to heat, toasting until golden brown. Remove from heat and allow to cool. These can be stored in the freezer for up to 3 months.

Pasta with Romanesco Cauliflower and Prosciutto (inspired by and loosely adapted from a recipe from Olives and Oranges)

1 lb strozzapreti pasta (or penne, or something similar)
2 medium heads romanesco cauliflower, cut into bite sized florets
1/4 lb prosciutto, cut into 1/4 inch strips
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 anchovy fillets
1 cup freshly grated parmesan
1 cup bread crumbs (recipe in the headnotes)
extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400. Toss cauliflower with 2 tbsp olive oil and season well with salt and pepper. Roast on a parchment lined baking sheet for 45 minutes, or until browning, and crisp-tender.

Bring a large pot of well salted water to a boil.

In another large pot or dutch oven, heat a tablespoon of oil over medium high heat, then add prosciutto. Saute until some fat is rendered and the meat begins to brown ever so slightly--about 5 minutes. Remove from pot and set aside.

***If you don't make your own bread crumbs, you'll probably want to add 1 scant tbsp red pepper flakes (per your own taste) in this next step to give it a little heat. The bread crumbs I made were pretty spicy, so I just left it at that.***

To the same dutch oven where you cooked the prosciutto, add 1/4 cup olive oil and the minced garlic. Saute briefly until garlic just barely turns toasty, then add the anchovy fillets. The fillets will dissolve in the oil. Add the cauliflower and the prosciutto, and stir to coat in the garlic-anchovy oil. Remove from heat and cover to keep warm.

Add pasta to the boiling water and cook until al dente. I found that the strozzapreti took much less time than I thought it would--maybe less than 7 minutes.

Before draining the pasta, reserve a bit of the starchy water in a mug for using in the sauce if needed. Then drain the pasta, and add to the cauliflower prosciutto mixture. Toss to combine. Add half the bread crumbs and half the parmesan, then toss to combine again. If the pasta seems too dry at this point (which mine did), you can add a bit of the reserved pasta water, and a little bit more olive oil.

Transfer pasta to a serving bowl, sprinkle remaining bread crumbs and parmesan over the top, toss lightly, and finish with a good dose of fresh cracked pepper.

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