This is an amazing first course or side dish. Roasted slabs of cauliflower topped off with a tomato olive type salsa. I read about this technique in an older issue of Bon Appetit. Taking a whole head of cauliflower, peel off the outer leaves, standing it on its core end and cutting slabs from it's thickest part, a good half inch or a more keeping everything intact resembling a little tree. I decided to roast my "steaks" so I drizzled each side with olive oil, salt, pepper and a sprinkling of romano or parmesan cheese of course!

Bake in a 400F oven until tender and golden on each side gently flipping each "steak" over with a spatula. Don't worry about the stem and core being attached you're going to eat it all!

The end result gives you the perfect surface for a topping of your choice, think about it for a minute, the possibilities are endless! I might even stick a fried egg on top for some "steak" and eggs next time!

The topping I made had quartered grape tomatoes, sliced green and kalamata olives, finely diced red onion, fresh basil, parsley and olive oil, if I had a jar of artichokes I would have chopped a few in there and maybe even a couple sun dried tomatoes.

It was the perfect compliment to the creamy roasted slabs of cauliflower, and a definite WOW factor! I hope you give it a try.

Buon Appetito!

Sformato is a molded dish, usually a vegetable of some sort mixed in with a bechamel parmesan cheese sauce that turns into a light and fluffy almost custard like souffle. In this case I used cauliflower, but you could also use zucchini, spinach, asparagus, artichokes, and mushrooms, just to mention a few. The same thing goes with the sauces, the possibilities are endless!


I saw this awhile back on Linda's blog and wanted to make it then, but never got around to it until recently when I saw it again in the recent issue of La Cucina Italiana magazine. In the magazine they used a ring mold which gave a pretty presentation but I didn't have one so I just used my 6" spring form pan which has deep sides, and that worked out very well.

Essentially you cook up your cauliflower then pulse it in a food processor, mix it in with your creamy savory custard sauce, season everything, place it in your mold and bake. The recipe says to boil your cauliflower, drain it, then squeeze out the excess water, I found that roasting it until tender was easier and I didn't have to squeeze anything out, just make sure you don't caramelize your veggies. I roasted mine at 375F but I was watching it often by pulling it out and checking for doneness. Here's the link to the recipe, also before I placed it in the oven I sprinkled parmesan all over the top. I served mine with a light marinara sauce, it was delicious!

I hope you give this a try, be creative, you're going to love it!

Buon Appetito!!

I had a small pork roast and a lot of fresh herbs still left in my garden, and unfortunately tonight in Chicago will be our first frost!!! So, I gathered up the last of my Rosemary and Thyme to use for our dinner tonight. I thought I would try something a little different, normally I would rub the outside with lots of herbs and roast it like that, but this time I made a paste of olive oil, smashed garlic, finely minced Rosemary & Thyme, salt & pepper.

I generously rubbed the whole outside, with lots of garlic and all the herbs I brought in.

But the new thing for me was to cut open the roast, in half, not all the way through, but like a book. Next, I took out my meat tenderizer and gave it a few good wacks!!! and then I rubbed that aromatic, yummy paste all over it!! I rolled it up tight like a jelly roll, and tied it with string, and let it sit in my frig a couple of hours before I cooked it. The result!!! Unbelievable flavor infused through out the whole roast! I will definitely do this again, it was well worth the little extra effort!

As a side dish I made cauliflower and prosciutto in a garlic cream sauce, it went well with the pork. All in all, it turned out to be a nice Sunday Dinner!! Hope your's was too!!

Buon Appetito!