Some riffs on a bag of cauliflower

Recipes: Romesco sauce, Cauliflower gratin

I came back from a shopping trip to Costco with a big bag of cauliflower florets a couple of weeks ago. In case you're not familiar with Costco, it's a membership warehouse store with really good prices for lots of things and, incidentally, is also famous for high-quality meats, vegetables, and fruits. You just have to buy a lot as it all comes in big packages. Costco is the main reason I have two refrigerator freezers plus a chest freezer and a whole system of wall shelves in the basement - I have to store all those supplies I get at Costco.

I don't often buy vegetables there, except for onions and potatoes, because it's just too much to use before they go bad. This time I couldn't resist the big bag of cauliflower. It's cauliflower season and I love cauliflower. It looked so fresh and good. The bag had the equivalent of 2-plus whole cauliflowers cut into medium florets. Lots of cauliflower for two people.

I worked at it. The first thing I did was serve raw cauliflower with Romesco sauce as an appetizer when my friend Jackie came over for our usual Monday night dinner together. It's January and of course we're all trying to shave off those extra coupl'a pounds we put on over the holidays. Raw veggies are a healthy lo-cal option. On top of that, Romesco is made with roasted red bell peppers (more veggies) and, yes, almonds. It's kind of exotic and is delicious with all kinds of raw and cooked vegetables. Here's how to make it.

Romesco Sauce

Makes about 1 cup of sauce. If you want less, you can halve this recipe. Romesco freezes well, though, so you could make the whole thing and have some already made for next time.

• 1 slice country-style white bread, or gluten-free bread if desired
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1/2 cup almonds, roasted (but not salted). You can roast raw almonds in a dry skillet for a few minutes if that's what you have.
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 teapoon ground red chile (or red pepper flakes to taste)
• 4 ripe Roma tomatoes, or one 14-oz can drained chopped tomatoes (not seasoned)
• 1 tablespoon fresh parsley leaves
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
• 1 large red bell pepper, roasted and peeled*, or 1 small jar roasted red bell peppers
• 1/4 cup sherry vinegar (I have also used 1 tablespoon dry sherry and scant 1/4 cup rice vinegar)
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (if you can get Spanish olive oil, go for it)

Tear the bread into pieces and fry in a little olive oil until golden and crisp. When cool, grind the bread, nuts, garlic, and chile in a food processor with the metal blade. Add everything else except the vinegar and oil and process until smooth. With the machine running, gradually pour in the vinegar, then the oil. Taste to make sure the sauce has plenty of piquancy (vinegar and/or ground chile) and enough salt.

Now all you have to do is take out a few cauliflower florets and arrange it on a plate around a bowl of Romesco. Quite pretty, isn't it?

*To roast a pepper, remove the top and any seeds inside. Then cut the pepper in half and flatten it skin side up on a foil liked broiler pan. Put it under a hot broiler until the skin turns mostly black. Take it out of the broiler, carefully gather it all into a pile and cover it with an overturned bowl. After it's done steaming and cools enough to handle, the blackened skin will come off easily with a paring knife. Then it's ready to use.

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Still had quite a bit of cauliflower left in the bag so, in line with the desire to eat a bit more healthily in the New Year, I started snacking on raw cauliflower whenever I felt like diving into some cheese and crackers. It was really a delicious alternative and couldn't have hurt the effort!

As the amount of cauliflower dwindled, I decided to cook a little of it for dinner one night. This simple gratin was so quick and easy, and it was "simply" delicious. I served it with chicken.

Cauliflower Gratin with Butter and Parmesan

• 1/2 medium or one small cauliflower, cut into medium florets
• Butter
• Sea salt
• 2/3 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Boil a big pot of water. Put about half a cauliflower's worth of florets, medium to large size, in the water and cook it for 5 minutes. Drain it and let it cool.

In an oven-to-table baking dish, smear the bottom and sides with a little butter. Arrange the cauliflower florets so they overlap each other slightly, roof-tile fashion. Sprinkle with sea salt and 2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese. Dot liberally with butter.

Bake on the uppermost rack of the preheated oven until a light crust forms on top, about 15 to 20 minutes.

Take it out of the oven and let it settle a few minutes before serving. Delicioso!

 

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Before I knew it, that big bag of cauliflower was empty! Yum!