Cauliflower, Chilli And Anchovy Pasta

Cauliflower is a great absorber of flavours and it's excellent with strong tastes like chilli and salty anchovy, just as it suits sweet onions, currants and saffron. St John serves a remarkably good salad with cauliflower, butter beans and leeks and I also had a very good creamy cauliflower puree the other day, served with a veal chop. Funny how the English have never done much with the cauliflower, except our old cauliflower cheese.

Serves 2

Ingredients

1 head of cauliflower
2 cloves of garlic, sliced
6 salted anchovy fillets
1 red chilli, finely chopped
Good olive oil
Pasta – conchiglie, orriechiette or penne are good with this
Parsley or Parmesan

Method

Peel the leaves and cut the base off the cauliflower so it falls into little florets. Cook in boiling, salted water until it is soft to the core, then scoop it into a colander, because you can use the water to cook the pasta in.

Meanwhile, heat some olive oil in a pan and gently fry the garlic and chilli until it is just starting to colour then add the anchovies which will melt into the oil as they heat. Add the cooked cauliflower and a few spoons of the cooking water, breaking up the florets gently with a spoon. Cook together for a few minutes until you have a soft, wet sauce. Season well but bear in mind the salty anchovies.

Cook the pasta in the boiling, salted water, drain and mix with the sauce. Have a taste for seasoning and add a good glug of your best olive oil.

Sometimes I eat this with parsley and sometimes a little bit of Parmesan, but not with both.