Creamy Cauliflower Pasta.

Thought I'd quickly jump on and share what I had for dinner last night. It was a riff on the Alison Roman's Creamy Cauliflower pasta from NYTimes Cooking which is what I had intended to make but then opened my fridge to find a leek that desperately needed to be used and I also didn't have any panko breadcrumbs to make the crunchy topping she calls for. I also couldn't be arsed to get the food processor out to blitz some bread to make my own, sue me.

So instead of following her recipe, I used it as a base and made my own and it was rich and creamy and comforting and delicious. It won't give you abs, but it will fill your belly with the warmth I think we all need.

Creamy Cauliflower Pasta

Serves 3

1 leek, washed and sliced (you can use an onion, shallot or even spring onions instead)
1 medium head of cauliflower, leaves removed and sliced/roughly chopped
A good splosh of olive oil
A knob of butter
1 cup of white wine (you can use a stock cube + 1 cup water here if you don't have white wine)
1 lemon, zest and juice needed
300ml cream
300g short pasta (I used rigatoni)
Parsley (optional - I didn't have it but it would have been a delicious addition)
Salt and Pepper
Parmesan, to serve

Heat oil and butter in a large frying pan on medium heat. Add the leek and a pinch of salt and cook for about 3-5 minutes until it started to soften. Add the cauliflower, breaking up any large pieces and cooking for a further 5 minutes.

(Get your salted water boiling for the pasta.)

Once the cauliflower starts to soften, add the cup of wine and lemon zest and cook until all the liquid has been cooked away and you start to hear a sizzle again. This can take about 8 - 10 minutes, you want to cook all the liquid away until it starts frying again so you get a little bit of colour and caramelisation on the vegetables.

Start cooking your pasta, according to the packet instructions. Make sure you keep about 1 cup of pasta cooking water.

Once the cauliflower starts to colour, turn the heat down to low and add the cream. Cook on low until the sauce thickens.

When your pasta is cooked and the sauce thickened, add the pasta to the sauce along with some of the pasta cooking water bit by bit and give it a good toss. You may not need to add the whole cup, depends on how much your sauce thickened. Turn the heat off.

Add the juice of half the lemon, the chopped parsley and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve piping hot with parmesan and maybe a squeeze more lemon juice.