Pasta With Cauliflowers Sicilian Style

I sometimes find the cauliflower a bit boring but since I have discovered this Pasta with Cauliflowers Sicilian Style I have learned to appreciate it.

I found this intriguing recipe at “la montagna incantata” and it’s called bucatini con i broccoli arriminati.

It is easy, but different from the usual pasta.

It is a Sicilian dish that I didn’t know (even if my father comes from that beautiful island) but I could still recognize the typical ingredients that the Arabic influence left in the culinary art of Sicily.

Ingredients for Pasta With Cauliflowers Sicilian Style

• 1 cauliflower
• 5 anchovies
• 1 onion
• 1 saffron sachet
• 1 handful of raisins
• 1 handful of pinenuts

Instructions for Pasta With Cauliflowers Sicilian Style

In a big saucepan bring plenty of water to the boil, add salt and the cauliflower washed and divided in big florets.

In the meantime place the thin sliced onion and the anchovies in a frying pan. Once the onion is soft and the anchovies melted set aside and wait for the cauliflower to be cooked.

Drain the cauliflower and add it to the onion.

Don’t throw away the water the cauliflower has boiled in, you will use it for cooking the pasta.

While the pasta is cooking (I suggest a long type like spaghetti or bucatini) sauté the cauliflower while mashing it with a wooden spoon or a fork (depending on the material of your pan).

Now add the raisins, pinenuts and the saffron together with a ladle of the water in which the pasta is cooking.

Check the salt and add if needed. Let it cook another few minutes until it takes this aspect:

Drain the pasta al dente or as you prefer it and add it to the pan, give it a further stir to coat it with the exotic dressing and enjoy it!

Of course if you are vegetarian you can leave out the anchovies but only those, because it is the combination of all these flavors that makes this dish so interesting and so not boring!