Ever since the gluten-free movement got underway, cauliflower has enjoyed an increase in attention as a viable substitute for the starches. Much like its caucasion buddies, white pasta and white rice, cauliflower makes an excellent base for whatever sauce or gravy is blopped on top of it. Course-chopped cauliflower can be a good stand-in for dishes calling for penne or rigatoni. Throw cauliflower into a whirlygig and pulse until it’s shredded and you’ve got yourself a nifty rice substitute.
Our Calvofiore recipe is simple peasant fare consisting of cauliflower fried in garlic, oil, and breadcrumbs and then gussied up with cannellini beans and sweet red onions. Here we use frozen steam-in-bag cauliflower which is no more expensive than fresh cauliflower and cooks a lot faster in the microwave.
What You’ll Need
2 – 12 ounce bags of frozen steam-in-bag cauliflower – or one large head of fresh
2 – 15 ounce cans of cannellini beans
1 can or jar of prepared tomato sauce
1 large red onion – sliced
6 cloves of garlic – peeled
Italian seasoned breadcrumbs – about 1/2 cup
Olive oil
Salt
Ground black pepper
Dried Oregano
Balsamic vinegar (optional)
What to Do
Get rid of that cell phone.
Now hiss a little non-stick cooking spray into a small fry pan. Add the sliced red onions and put a medium-low heat under it. Fry the onions slowly, stirring occasionally, until they begin to caramelize (about 20 minutes). If you have balsamic vinegar on hand add a couple of glugs to the onions about 10 minutes into the cooking. If you don’t have balsamic don’t worry about it.
While the onions are cooking, steam the cauliflower until soft. Take the 6 garlic cloves, put a large knife over each (sharp edge facing away from you) and press down slightly until you hear a pop. Empty the 2 cans of cannellini beans into a colander in the sink and rinse them under cold water.
Put a couple-a-three-glugs of olive oil into a large fry pan. Add the cracked garlic to the oil and put a medium heat under the pan. Fry the garlic until they turn gold then add the steamed cauliflower. Fry the cauliflower in the garlic and oil, stirring frequently (breaking up any large pieces), until the cauliflower gets shiny and starts to brown a little (about 3 to 4 minutes). Add in the seasoned breadcrumbs and continue frying another 3 to 4 minutes stirring constantly so that the breadcrumbs don’t burn.
How are those onions doing?
Now throw the cannellini beans in with the cauliflower and stir it all up real good. Add salt, pepper, and the dried oregano to taste and continue cooking another 2 minutes or so just to heat the beans through.
Heat your can or jarred tomato sauce until hot and then transfer it to a pass-around bowl. Serve the Calvofiore in bowls topped with the caramelized red onions. Pass around the tomato sauce.
Serves 4. My cost approx. $ 6.60 total – about $ 1.65 per serving.