Cheeky Cauliflower Toast
It’s cauliflower Jim, but not as you know it…
I stumbled across this recipe by Ina Garten. I have lost many an hour watching Ina on TV as the Barefoot Contessa, longing for her kitchen and garden in the Hamptons and marveling about how huge her fridge was and even bowls, pans and ingredients were. It wasn’t until we spent three months in California a few years ago did we get to have that experience of American sized everything and the challenges that we’d have to overcome shopping for things as simple as single cream, but that’s a whole other story.
Back to the cauliflower. Cauliflower can be a bit, well, bland, even when coated in cheese sauce so roasting the cauli as small florets is inspired and gives it not only a non flabby texture but also a lovely flavour similar to that of what you get with bubble and squeak.
This is a perfect brunch item or a Saturday evening snack, especially as the mixture can all be prepared in advance, which makes it even less of a chore and can just chuck it on some toast and bingo in 5 minutes you’ll have the scrummiest toasty treat in front of you.
Here’s what you’ll need to feed 6-8 as small pieces (or 4 piggie people):
- 1 small cauliflower
- Fair few glugs of light olive oil
- Pinch or two of Aleppo pepper
- Salt & ground black pepper
- 250g Mascarpone cheese
- 180g Gruyere cheese, grated
- 150g (or as much as you like) Parma or Serrano Ham
- 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg
- 6 large slices of sourdough bread
- Paprika
- Fresh chopped chives
- Parmesan (optional)
Preheat oven to 180C
Break the cauliflower in small florets. You want them to be cooked through, so the smaller the floret the better. Pop the florets in a bowl and toss with a far few glugs of olive oil and a good pinch of Aleppo pepper, salt and black pepper. You can use standard chilli flakes but I am in love with the less harsh and sweetness of Aleppo pepper also known as pul biber. You can buy this now in some supermarkets and of course online.
Doing this in a bowl makes for a good covering before putting on the baking sheet. Also, if you want less washing up you can cover your baking sheet with tin foil before cooking.
Roast for around 25 minutes, checking on it and tossing a few times until all the florets and tender and randomly browned. Let them cool for about 10 minutes.
Set the oven to grill.
Put the florets in a large mixing bowl along with the Mascarpone, Gruyere, nutmeg (freshly grated if possible), Parma Ham, salt and some cracked black pepper.
At this point of course, if you have veggie friends around, you can omit the cured ham. We love it as it adds a sweet & salty dimension. At this point as well, if you fancied it you could add a teaspoon or two of your favourite mustard, play around with it.
Toast your bread in the toaster and then slather it with the cauliflower mixture, dust with a little paprika. Pop under the grill until bubbling and starting to tinge brown on the edges.
Transfer to a plate or board or whatever fanciful serving platter you are using, sprinkle with chives (they add a lovely subtle oniony taste) and Parmesan if using.
That’s it. Job done. Enjoy.
