Cauliflower and Pasta Bake
Holy moly, I recommend you make this dish. It may sound so so, but trust me the flavors are perfect together. I made this for a friend and the two of us could not stop raving about it the entire time. The recipe is inspired by Ina Garten with a few Jacked Kitchen tweaks along the way.
It is layered with decadent cheesiness from Havarti, cheddar and ricotta cheese yet lightened by the zing of capers and lemon. It’s cheesy, but not macaroni and cheese type of cheesy. The cheese melts to combine the cauliflower and pasta without creating a heavy sauce. It’s light, yet rich and comforting. I served this as a main course, but it would work well as a side dish. You could also add cooked chicken if you’d like.
Cauliflower and Pasta Bake Recipe
Serves 4-6
Ingredients
- 1/2 lb pasta (shells, pipe, penne, fusilli, cavatappi)
- Olive oil
- 1 large heat of cauliflower, chopped
- 2 Tbsp fresh sage, finely chopped
- 2 Tbsp capers, drained
- 3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 lemon, both zest and juice
- 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
- 1/2 tsp dry mustard
- 1 and 1/2 cup Havarti cheese, shredded
- 1/2 cup white cheddar cheese, shredded
- 1 cup fresh ricotta (I recommend using the full fat version.)
- 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
- 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
- 2 Tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped
- Kosher salt and black pepper
Directions
- Cook 1/2 lb of pasta according to the package. Salt the boiling water as the pasta cooks.
- Chop the cauliflower into bite sizes pieces.
- Heat 1 tsp of olive oil in a large sauté pan. Add the cauliflower in a single layer (you may need to cook in batches). Sprinkle the cauliflower with a pinch of salt and pepper and cook for 6-7 minutes, stirring often, until the cauliflower softens and starts to brown. Place the cooked cauliflower in a large bowl after cooking. Repeat with the second batch.
- In a small bowl add 2 Tbsp chopped sage, 2 Tbsp drained capers, 3-4 cloves of minced garlic, lemon zest and lemon juice from 1 lemon, 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper and 1/2 tsp dry mustard. Stir to combine.
- Mix together 1/2 cup of breadcrumbs, 1/2 cup of grated Parmesan and 2 Tbsp of chopped fresh parsley.
- If the cheese is not already shredded, shred the Havarti cheese into 1 and 1/2 cups and white cheddar in 1/2 cup. If the soft cheese is difficult to shred you can dice it into small cubes.
- To the bowl of cauliflower, add the cooked pasta, lemon/caper mix, and the Havarti and cheddar cheese. Eye ball the cauliflower and pasta to make sure it looks like about a 1:1 ratio. Mix to combine.
- Add half of the pasta and cauliflower to a 9 x 11 casserole dish. Add dollops of ricotta cheese across the pasta and roughly spread with a spoon. Top the pasta with the remaining pasta and cauliflower.
- Top the pasta with the mixed bread crumbs, Parmesan and parsley mix.
- Bake at 400 for 25-30 minutes until the breadcrumbs start to brown on top.
The best advice for making sure a dish tastes good is to put good things into it. Ditch the powdery Parmesan cheese that call into question if it really is cheese and grate your own. Buy a block of Parmesan cheese and add chunks of the cheese to a food processor until it is finely grated.
Same thing with the bread crumbs, use leftover artisan bread or rolls to make your own breadcrumbs. The already made breadcrumbs from the grocery store are a little lacking in flavor and are so crumbly it’s like dust. Toss chunks of bread into the food processor for homemade bread crumbs. I usually make a large batch and store them in the refrigerator.
Along the same lines, use fresh herbs and a fresh lemon if you can. It really does add more flavor.
If you want more or less cheese you can adjust the amount to your liking. The original recipe I used from Ina Garten calls for Fontina cheese which is a soft cheese. I substituted with Havarti cheese which is another type of soft cheese. I recommend you stick to a soft cheese as the primary cheese so the pasta is creamy versus stringy. (If you’ve read a few of my other posts, you’ll know I detest stringy cheese. Yes, yes, I know, I’m the only one in the world.)
Last but not least, you can bake this in a different size pan if you’d like. All of the ingredients are already cooked when they go into the pan so it’s just a matter of melting the cheese and browning the bread crumbs on top.
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