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Roasted Cauliflower with Spinach Olives Capers and Anchovies

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Roasted cauliflower is transformed into a sublime vegetable with a classic mixture of olives, capers and anchovies. Spinach is added at the end giving it a fresh lively taste and beautiful green color. A simple make ahead dish.

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 medium cauliflower about 1 ½ pounds
  • Celtic sea salt
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 24 anchovy fillets packed in olive oil, rinsed, patted dry and finely chopped
  • ½ cup roughly chopped black olives (get ones that taste really good)
  • 1 tablespoon capers, rinsed, patted dry and coarsely chopped
  • ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
  • black pepper
  • Pinch of red pepper flakes
  • 1 ½ cups baby spinach, cut into bite size pieces
  • ¼ cup pine nuts, roasted

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees (unless you’re cooking it later).
  2. Put a large pot of water on the stove to boil.
  3. In the meantime, cut the cauliflower into quarters. Cut off the tough core at the stem end of each piece.  Cut the quarters into 1/2 thick slices. You’ll get a bunch of rough pieces.  Cut large slices into several pieces so all the cauliflower is about the same size. There may be some cauliflower crumbs, that’s ok, cook all of it.
  4. Add salt to the boiling water, add chopped cauliflower. Turn on your timer immediately, cook for 2 minutes and drain. Spread on a baking sheet.
  5. In a large bowl, put garlic, anchovy, olives, capers, olive oil, lemon juice and lemon zest.
  6. Whisk together with a fork and taste. Adjust salt and lemon juice if necessary.
  7. Add blanched cauliflower to the bowl. Season with black pepper and a pinch of red pepper flakes.
  8. Toss with your hands to coat cauliflower evenly with dressing.
  9. Transfer to a rimmed baking sheet or shallow baking pan. (recipe can me made up until this point and kept in the refrigerator for a few hours).
  10. Bake cauliflower uncovered for 20 minutes until top is beginning to brown.
  11. While the cauliflower is cooking, put the pine nuts into a small roasting pan or oven proof sauté pan. Roast for 5 minutes, stirring a few times until lightly brown. Remove from the oven and set aside.
  12. Once the cauliflower is done, add the spinach and mix to combine.
  13. Return to the oven and let cook for 1 minute, until spinach is wilted.
  14. Sprinkle with pine nuts, serve warm or at room temperature,

Notes

You can adjust the pungency by adding or subtracting anchovies.