PASTA with ROASTED CAULIFLOWER, CHORIZO + WINTER PESTO
Serves 4
A dish that has excellent ROI with your cooking time, it is filling and textured and has lots of vegetables. You may end up with more kale pesto than you need for this recipe, but it has lots of other uses, such as with eggs, atop roast potatoes, or as a veggie sandwich spread. We don’t want the fresh sausage-like chorizo in tube form; instead, look for a dry chorizo, typically from Spain, not Mexico, that you will find in a well stocked cheese and deli section. It looks like salami.
I do think sucessful dinner prep takes a bit of planning. The pesto can be made a few days in advance to save time. Vegetarian? Replace the chorizo with some chopped, sun dried tomatoes.
Printed from Around Our Table by Sara Forte
FOR THE WINTER PESTO
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup pine nuts
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 cup cilantro or parsley
1 packed cup lacinato kale, deribbed and chopped
1 tsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp. fresh ground pepper
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
FOR THE CAULIFLOWER
1 head cauliflower, broken into small florets
3 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp. dried oregano
sea salt and fresh ground pepper
2 oz. dried chorizo, cut in 1” ribbons
1 small bundle lacinato kale, deribbed and cut in ribbons
12 oz. any short pasta
half of one lemon
grated parmesan, red pepper flakes, fresh parsley, for garnish
Make the kale pesto. In a food processor, pulse the garlic, pine nuts and lemon juice together. Add the cilantro and/or parsley, chopped kale, salt and pepper, and run it again until well chopped. With the motor going, drizzle in the olive oil and parmesan cheese. Set aside.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
Preheat the oven to 425’. On a rimmed baking sheet, pile the cauliflower, and drizzle it with the olive oil, oregano, salt and pepper. Toss well to coat and roast for 30 minutes until the edges are toasty. To the baking sheet, add the chorizo and kale ribbons, toss everything to coat. If the sheet looks dry, add another drizzle of oil. Roast an additional 3 minutes to warm. Set aside.
Cook your pasta according to instructions. Reserve 1/2 cup of pasta water. Drain the pasta and put it back in the pot with a few heaping spoonfuls of the pesto and a giant splash of the pasta water. Stir to mix, we want it generously sauced. Add the contents of the baking sheet, squeeze of fresh lemon and stir again. Add more pesto if you’d like or more pasta water to loosen things up.
Serve portions with a generous sprinkling of parmesan, red pepper flakes, a grind of pepper and some fresh parsley.
