Cauliflower and Leek Penne
Tommy and I are subscribers to Food & Wine Magazine. Occasionally we run across some recipes that get our attention, so I bookmark them and then file the magazine away on the shelf. One thing that I do when I’m looking for ideas of what to make for dinner is go through this stack of magazines to see if there is anything that once again sparks my interest. This was one such recipe. It didn’t take more than an hour to make, if you look at the prep time vs. the active time, it would lead you to believe that it takes an hour and a half to make. Not true. One thing that did surprise me was that the cauliflower takes a long time to cook down (25 minutes). I monitored this process very closely because I was afraid that 25 minutes would turn the cauliflower into mush, and I don’t like mush. But 25 minutes it took,and the cauliflower came out cooked but not mushy.
This dish was surprisingly flavorful. I don’t remember which white we used, but I remember being able to taste the wine flavors in the dish. It is very important to use a wine that you would drink and enjoy when using wine for cooking. Tommy and I follow that rule. I think that it is necessary in this dish. If I had kept up with my food blog this month, I would have been able to blog about the wine as well… The only variation that I did to this recipe is that I only used 1/2 lb pasta instead of 3/4 lb. I liked the cauliflower/leek mixture to pasta ratio that we ended up with.
Cauliflower and Leek Penne