For dinner last night, I made a spicy cajun shrimp pasta; it was decent, but nothing to write home about. I cooked some chopped bacon, added shrimp, then tomatoes, minced garlic, scampi sauce, lemon juice and white wine--I let all of those things hang out for a few minutes, then added them to some bowtie pasta. I was going to make a salad and call it a meal, but I felt like trying something different. Travis REALLY likes cauliflower, and has been practically begging me to make some. I don't have a craving for the mushy white "broccolli", so I've been putting it off for a while. Growing up, I had only had cauliflower "Southern Style", meaning steamed until mushy and swimming in butter (seriously, the leftovers would have a "skim" of butter when you opened the container--the same goes for just about any vegetable my grandma would cook). But, lo and behold, I was checking out the recipes in the Thanksgiving edition of the FNM, and found this recipe called "Roasted Cauliflower with Dates and Pine Nuts", which I had to try, because, like I said, Travis has been begging for months to have cauliflower. The recipe is as follows:
1 large head cauliflower, broken into florets
1/2 cup medjool dates, pitted and coarsely chopped
1/3 cup pine nuts
4 tbsp butter (unsalted)
1 clove garlic, minced
preheat oven to 425 F. Place florets on baking sheet, add salt and pepper to taste, and roast for 20 minutes (toss once about half-way through). Meanwhile, melt butter on medium heat, then add pine nuts and cook, stirring frequently, until pine nuts are brown (about 5 minutes). Then, add dates and garlic, and stir frequently until dates are softened. When the cauliflower is tender and browned on the tops, remove it from the oven and put it in a serving dish, then drizzle with the pine nut/date mixture.
While I was eating, some stray bacon pieces from my pasta migrated into my roasted cauliflower with dates and pine nuts, and the light-bulb went off...should have cooked the pine nuts in some bacon (because we know that bacon makes everything better) instead of butter. So, next time, I will chop 4 or 5 pieces of thick sliced bacon and saute the pine nuts with the bacon, then add the garlic and dates...should be tasty!