How to Make Cauliflower Spaghetti Aglio Olio

How to Make Cauliflower Spaghetti Aglio Olio All right, here’s an old family favorite. This is a simple Cauliflower Aglio olio which Aglio Olio is just spaghetti with oil and garlic on it. So, we’re going to have a few other things here but we’re going to keep it pretty basic, add some olive oil, some red pepper flakes. I got about six cloves of crushed garlic, a nice hunky reggiano; get the real stuff, come on, no fake cheese. And some nice Barilla, this is the Plus spaghetti. That’s the whole grain version. We’ve been using that a lot lately, a really nice stuff. I got one head of cauliflower that I just separated. This is the water I’m going to boil my pasta in. So, I’m going to save a step here. I’m not going to have two pots. I’m just going to blanch that for about five minutes in salted water. I fished it out, put in some cold water. I don’t need to put in ice water. I just want to cool it enough to handle it so that I could go ahead and chop it up. To prep the cauliflower for the sauce, not too complicated but I do want you to notice a real subtle thing here. The tops which are going to fall apart a lot faster, I’m going to leave those in bigger pieces. I’m just going to like maybe quarter those. The stem part as you see what I’m doing there, I’m just giving that a little bit of a smaller dice because I kind of want this to fall apart at the end into the same size pieces. You’re going to see that later when we finish the sauce but to make that a little easier, the stems, I want you to cut just a little smaller than the tops. I think a mistake people make when they make these vegetable pastas, they do leave vegetables in large chunks, so you’re basically eating vegetable with pasta; it’s like a separate component. A lot of the vegetable will actually be the sauce. We prep our sauce here. I have a skillet on medium low. I don’t want it too hot. I don’t want the butter to brown. Add your olive oil, that’s a third of a cup, half a stick of butter and just let the butter melt. I could just let it melt but of course, I’m going to stir it around because I like to play with my food; it’s kind of fun. So, give it a stir and when the butter melts, you’re going to grab your garlic and be very careful. Again, I want to repeat, this heat’s on medium low. The garlic is not supposed to brown. We just want to kind of explode that garlic flavor into the oil. So, we’re just going to give it about 15 seconds, 20 seconds sizzling. The beauty of having that cauliflower chopped and ready is as soon as you toss it in here, that’s what I’m going to do right now, that’s basically going to bring the temperature of that oil down and we won’t have to worry about that garlic burning. So, that was just to sizzle the garlic and again, maybe 15, 20 seconds on medium to medium low. Have your cauliflower ready because if you see any color on that garlic, get that cauliflower in there and that’s basically it. Now, to help this along, we want this to simmer on low while the pasta cooks. I want you to add about maybe three quarters of a cup of the pasta water. Again, this is a stuff you can adjust as you cook. If it looks like it’s getting a little dryer, add some more water. If it looks like it’s too watery, just reduce it a little bit. So, that’s what I’m after, this really turns into a beautiful, creamy, almost like a cauliflower puree with a few chunks. At this point, I’m going to add my hot pepper, about a tablespoon I guess, that’s of course to taste and a nice healthy couple of pinches of salt. This is kind of a blend of vegetable obviously cauliflower and you need to really season as well. Just let that simmer on low while your pasta cooks. So, your pasta’s going to take about 10 minutes which is just a perfect timing because that’s what this simmers for, about 10 minutes. You can see that’s what I’m after, kind of a creamy sauce. I got a few chunks. Drain your pasta, do not rinse, repeat, do not rinse. You want the pasta to have a little bit of starch on the outside of it. It’s going to grab on to the sauce. You’re going to dump your cauliflower, butter, olive oil, garlic mixture in there. I wish you could smell this. It’s just amazing. It smells amazing, tastes amazing. We’re going to finish this with a couple of optional ingredients. I have some basil from the garden. I chopped it up. It’s about two to three tablespoons of chopped basil. Italian parsley is really nice in this and of course, what really makes it I think is this finely grated reggiano parmesan. Dump that in there, grab your tongs and just give it a toss. You want all the pasta to be coated. So, I’m going to toss this. I’m going to get a nice pasta bowl ready here and basically, I’m just going to finish it with a little bit of extra cheese on top. So, just coat the pasta, the Aglio Olio and the cauliflower and you’re going to see a serve in here. Again, I’m not going to lie, cauliflower is not the top of my list of vegetables. I ran for it when I get to the store but I think once you taste this and you realize just how easy this is to make, I think it’s a fantastic dinner or lunch. Some people put breadcrumbs on top, there are lots of variations on these but there’s your basic Cauliflower Aglio Olio Spaghetti. Again, I think a lot of garlic is the key and hot pepper, enjoy!