The art of Italian cooking: pasta with cauliflower, bacon and black olives

Hi, this is the seventeenth post about the art of cooking Italian pasta.

Yesterday Carlo and I showed you a simple pasta recipe whose sauce is made with cauliflower. Today we tell you about another version, typical of South of Italy. Orecchiette tossed with a white sauce made with cauliflower, bacon and black olives. Another tasty pasta recipe you can make in winter!

In this case the preferred pasta is orecchiette but you can use the pasta you are able to find or prefer.

Orecchiette, pasta from Apulia -Italy

Ingredients / Serves 2

140 g (5 oz) dry orecchiette

700 g (1.6 lb) cauliflower

40 g (1 1/2 oz) black olives, stoned and sliced

30 g (1 oz) bacon, cubed

4 anchovy fillets

1 garlic clove

Chilli pepper

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Salt

Grated Pecorino, if liked, or grated Parmesan cheese

Clean the cauliflower and break off its florets. Bring abundant salt water to the boil and add the cauliflower florets. After some minutes add the pasta too and cook al dente stage. We can’t tell you the cooking time  exactly. It depends on your taste. Do yo like tender or crunchy cauliflower?

Meanwhile put the olive oil in a non-stick frying pan. Add the garlic clove, anchovy fillets, bacon, chilli pepper and  olives. Let all the ingredients flavour on medium heat stirring now and then.

Drain the pasta and cauliflower very well. Put them into the pan and flavour for a minute on high heat stirring with delicacy. Serve the pasta dish hot.

Put on the table a little bowl with grated Parmesan or Pecorino cheese. So everyone will be able to sprinkle it on the top only if liked.

Consult all our entries about the art of Italian cooking in this page

Greetings from Italy

Carlo & Loretta