I made Bon Appetit’s Cauliflower Bolognese! It ended up being really delicious on the first try, so I am super excited to share the recipe with you. It took me about 30-45 to get everything prepared and cooked, but you can save time by chopping some veggies while the other ones are cooking.
Ingredients
6 large crimini mushrooms with the stems removed
1 large head of cauliflower (broken into florets)
1 large yellow onion (finely chopped)
6 garlic cloves (thinly sliced)
3 Tbsp. parsley (finely chopped)
1 Tbsp. rosemary (finely chopped)
¼ cup and 2 Tbsp. of olive oil
4 Tbsp. of unsalted butter (divided into 2 sets of 2 Tbsp)
½ Tsp. of crushed red pepper flakes
⅓ cup of tomato paste
Kosher salt
1 lb. of rigatoni
About 1 cup of finely grated parmesan
3 Tbsp. parsley (finely chopped)
½ lemon
Start cooking!
Using a food processor, pulse your mushrooms until they are finely chopped (if you don’t have a food processor, a Nutribullet works just as well). Put the mushrooms into a small bowl and wipe out the processor.
After the mushrooms, pulse the cauliflower in the food processor until you have rice-sized pieces. Don’t try to pulse the entire cauliflower all at once (it’s okay if some pieces are smaller or larger than rice). Place the cauliflower in a medium bowl.
Now it’s time to start cooking the vegetables! Heat ¼ cup of oil and 2 Tbsp. of butter in a large, heavy pot over medium-high. I have an electric stove and discovered that a lower heat was equal to the medium heat of a gas stove. Add the mushrooms and stir occasionally until they are golden brown (about 4-6 minutes).
While the mushrooms are cooking, finely chop your onion. Then, add it to the pot along with 2 Tbsp. of olive oil. Stir occasionally until the onion is very soft and golden brown (about 6-8 minutes).
Next, add the garlic, red pepper flakes, and rosemary while continuing to stir occasionally until the garlic has softened and the sauce smells very fragrant. Add the tomato paste until it has slightly darkened (about 2 minutes). Add the cauliflower and cook until it begins to stick to the bottom of the pot (about 6-8 minutes). Keep the pot on low heat.
While the cauliflower is cooking, begin boiling your water and cooking your pasta. I wasn’t able to find rigatoni at the store so I used chiocciole, which is a rounded pasta that looks like a garden snail’s shell. Cook the pasta until it is almost al dente (about 1 minute less than the package says).
Using a slotted spoon, add the pasta to the sauce. Add 1 cup of parmesan, the last 2 Tbsp. of butter, and 1 cup of pasta cooking liquid. For those who don’t know, pasta cooking liquid is the water that you cooked the pasta in after it has filled with starch. Increase the heat and stir the pasta into the sauce until the pasta is al dente and the sauce sticks (about 3 minutes).
Remove the pasta from the heat and stir in the parsley. You may need to add some salt so make sure to taste test. Finely zest the lemon over the pasta and toss again if you want (I didn’t).
This recipe was super easy to make and I look forward to making it again in the future––of course, after I finish all of the leftovers I have from this cooking session.