"I don't like cauliflower!" "Oh yeah?" "Yeah."

Well, try this on yourself and your family before you give up.  It's the beginning of spring, and the beautiful cauliflower and broccoli of winter will be left behind for juicy tomatoes and refreshing cucumbers.  But for one last rainy spring night, preheat your oven to 425 degrees.  I had two beautiful baby cauliflowers, but you could use one big one, too.  Break it up into florets - no need to go to the mini-florets.  Just make them all about the same size, about 3/4 inch in my case.

I also had some spring garlic.  Spring garlic looks like a bulbous little onion the size of a ping-pong ball.  Slice off the root and the greens.  Turn it to the root side and you can see the beginnings of individual cloves.  Peel off the tough outer skin and separate into individual cloves.  And thank heavens after handling the spring garlic I had some coffee soap from Hills Natural Soap (see link) to take the stink away!.

Put 2 tablespoons of everyday olive oil (see Ingredients) into a deep mixing bowl.  Add some sea salt and freshly-cracked black pepper (use 2 turns of the mill more than you think you should.  Really.).  Toss the garlic cloves in the bowl and put them on aluminum foil on a baking sheet.  Put it in your oven for five minutes while you toss the cauliflower in the same bowl, then put the bowl aside, as-is.  Pull out the baking sheet and add the cauliflower.  Turn all the veggies around and over about every 10 minutes for a half-hour.  You're looking for caramel-colored spots and soft but crispy texture on the cauliflower.

The garlic will be soft-to-creamy and the cloves will have formed an outer skin.  Squeeze the cloves out of the skin.   Try not to burn yourself too badly.

Make a gremolata (oooooooohhhhh):  take the zest (yellow but not white part of the peel) off a lemon; this is wayyyyyy easier with a microplane grater.  Really.  Spend the $12.00.  Chop with about 2 tablespoons of parsely leaves (take the stems off) and put aside.

In the last 20 minutes, put some water on to boil (about 10 minutes to a full boil).  Salt it so it tastes like the ocean (use your kosher salt, not your sea salt, for this) and cook the pasta - wbole wheat penne is the best - according to package directions.  You can add oil to the water and stir the pasta once it's in to keep it from sticking.  You want the pasta to finish cooking about the same time the cauliflower and garlic come out of the oven.

Now you need a spider (see Kitchen gear) or a slotted spoon.   First, put the cauliflower and garlic into the bowl.  Put in up to one tablespoon additional olive oil (you can use the good stuff for this, see Ingredients), and dump in the cauliflower and garlic.  Then, using your spider or slotted spoon, scoop out the pasta, shake off most of the water, and toss it into the bowl.  Grate some fresh parmesan cheese on top. Toss everything together.  Put on the serving plate and sprinkle the gremolata over all.   This should have been enough for two people, but I just love roasted vegetables, and I usually cut back the pasta so it's 2 parts veg to 1 part pasta.  If you do this just right, the pasta will have a creamy external texture without using cream or butter.  It shouldn't need any additional salt.  A little crunchy bacon or pancetta in this would be delightfully decadent!

Once you roast the vegetables, you could also toss them with a store-bought curry sauce (hey, some of you are a little busy) and serve over rice, or serve on the side with a nice Italian sausage; you could toss them with parmesan and roasted walnuts -- or anything else that suits your fancy.  And you can roast all kinds of vegetables (see Techniques). 

Eco-note:  You may question my use of aluminum foil on the pan, but I'm in a semi-arid region of the country, so I'm balancing...(picture my hands going up and down like the balances on a scale) "water to wash the pan...vs....aluminum foil..."

Homework:  Buy at least 8 oz. (by weight) of quinoa (KEEN-wha) for the weekend blog.  We're going to do some fancy stuff, including a totally kosher tabouleh for Passover!

Hope you enjoy, and see you at the market!