The Food Matters Project: Whole Cauliflower with Sausage

Let me start by saying that this fall I have been suffering from some pretty bad allergies. And by suffering, I mean suffering: when I made this dish, I hadn’t tasted food well in days. For those of you who haven’t experienced this type of punishment before, flavor perception is affected by both taste and smell, so my stuffy nose eventually caused me to lose the flavor in my meals. You can make me cough all day, you can give me sinus headaches, but you cannot take away my delicious food! This meant war on my allergies.

I got the best line of attack I could think of — hot Italian sausage from Eastern Market. Then I added in a hot pepper. As it cooked, I started to get a hint of the spicy smell if I leaned way over the pan. I was very pleased.

At this point, D walked in from work and immediately began coughing and sneezing. He called the spicy air “vindictive” at one point as his eyes watered. It seemed like from his reaction I needed to tone down the spiciness. We both love a good spicy meal, but I didn’t want it to cross the line into painful.

Hence how I ended up making Bittman’s modification on the second page of the recipe that included tomatoes. I also threw in a red bell pepper to help offset. And the bread crumbs certainly helped mitigate the burn.

As it turned out, we both found it the perfect level of spiciness. D loved the dish, and though I had worried that he wouldn’t like the cauliflower, we both agreed it was a perfect base to offset the bright flavors of the sausage “sauce.” He made an apt comparison to mashed potatoes. Lo and behold, it was the first thing I’d truly tasted all day.

The only thing I didn’t quite get was the presentation. Let’s face it, the sausage mixture isn’t exactly pretty, for all its delicious flavor. I think next time, I’ll just serve the sausage out of the pan next to the cauliflower and call it a day. We dug into it as soon as it was on the table and almost polished off the whole thing. I think it was a keeper.

See the original recipe on Gracie’s blog here, and see all the other FMP members’ takes on it here.

Whole Cauliflower with Spicy Sausage (adapted from The Food Matters Cookbook)

1 whole cauliflower
2/3 pound hot sausage
1 hot pepper
1/2 onion
1 clove garlic
2 cups whole canned tomatoes
1 red bell pepper
1 cup homemade bread crumbs made from stale bread (don’t worry, they’re easy!)

1. Cut off the stem and leaves of the cauliflower and wash it thoroughly. Set it in a steamer basket inside a large pot that has an inch or two of water in the bottom — make sure the water doesn’t come high enough to submerge parts of the cauliflower. Put it on the stove over high heat, let the water come to a boil, and steam it for 12-25 minutes. The time it takes will depend on its size, so check on it regularly and pull it out when it’s just barely tender enough for a thin knife to stick all the way through to the heart of it. Drain it in a strainer while you finish off the rest of the dish.

Fledgling tip: Set a timer to remind yourself, because you’ll be busy and it’s easy to lose track of time. If you overcook it, run it under cold water in a strainer to help stop it from cooking, because it’s so big that it will retain a lot of that heat and continue to cook otherwise.

2. Meanwhile, heat a tablespoon or two of olive oil over medium-high heat in a large pan (cast iron if you have it). Remove the sausage from the casing unless you have bulk sausage, in which case you’re good to go.

Fledgling tip: If you don’t work with sausage often, we’re talking about the thin skin that keeps the sausage in link form, and it’s easiest to cut a shallow line with a very sharp knife along the side of the casing and then just peel it off the sausage. This way, it will be able to crumble when it’s in the pan.

3. Add the sausage to the pan in chunks and start stirring it. Break up the sausage as much as you can as it cooks.

Fledgling tip: I find it helps to squash it with the back of a wooden spoon, then chop it with the edge. This might take a little muscle!

4. Deseed and chop up the hot pepper and onion, pausing occasionally to keep stirring the sausage. Once it’s no longer pink, pour out any excess oil that may have cooked off it, leaving a tablespoon or so (I didn’t have any excess). Add the onion and hot pepper to the pan along with a pressed or minced garlic clove. Stir and cook until the onion is translucent.

5. Meanwhile, chop up the red pepper and tomatoes. Stir them into the pan once the onions are translucent.

Fledgling tip: You don’t need the liquid from the tomatoes for this recipe, although I like to reserve it to cook beans and other things in later.

6. For the bread crumbs, take stale leftover bread (I save mine in the fridge just for this purpose) and put it in a food processor in chunks. Process until they form a fine crumb. Voila: homemade bread crumbs! I told you it was easy.

7. Add the bread crumbs to the pan and stir well to combine everything.

8. Serve the cauliflower head whole at the table and top with the sausage mixture.

Serves 2-3.

Related posts:

The Food Matters Project: Apricot Polenta Cake
The Food Matters Project: Quinoa Tabbouleh
The Food Matters Project: Crisp Rice Cakes with Stir-Fried Vegetables and Chicken
The Food Matters Project: Mixed Grill with Chimichurri