Pasta with Roasted Cauliflower, Parsley & Breadcrumbs

December 6, 2011

Don’t let the photo or title of this dish throw you off.  Yes, it’s another cauliflower dish, but we like cauliflower in this house, and hey, it is good for you.  This is a flavorful, one-dish, vegetarian pantry pasta.  This pasta has so many flavor combinations with the red onion, cauliflower, garlic and the breadcrumbs add a bit of crunch to the dish. 

This was my first time making this pasta and it was SUPER EASY and a TOTAL HIT.  The kids and hubby loved it, and of course, I did as well.

I’m calling this a pantry pasta because I had everything on hand but the fresh parsley.  I had some leftover white bread from making my tomato soup last week, and decided to make the homemade bread crumbs.  I mean why not, they looked easy enough.

Pasta with Roasted Cauliflower, Parsley & Breadcrumbs:

Recipe from Martha Stewart
see bottom of post for homemade breadcrumb recipe

• 1 head cauliflower, cut up into florets
• 1 medium red onion, halved and cut into thin wedges
• 5 garlic cloves, peeled and halved
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 box (12 ounces) cavatappi or other short pasta
• 1/4 cup grated or shredded Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving
• 1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped - I used Italian flat leaf parsley

Preheat oven to 475 degrees.  Set a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cut up your cauliflower, peel and halve your garlic cloves, slice up your onion, and wash and chop up your parsley leaves. 

Set aside the chopped parsley leaves.

Get out a rimmed baking sheet and throw on the chopped cauliflower, onions and garlic cloves.

Toss the cauliflower, garlic and onion with the 2 tablespoons olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  My kids are not pepper fans at all, so I just seasoned the veggies with salt.

 Roast the veggies in a 475 degree oven, tossing occasionally, until cauliflower is browned and tender when pierced with fork, about 20-25 minutes.  

When the veggies are almost finished roasting, cook the pasta in boiling water until al dente.  Reserve 1/2 cup pasta water; drain pasta and return to the pot.

Add to the pasta, the roasted cauliflower, garlic, onion, the 1/4 parmesan cheese and the 1/4 chopped parsley; toss to combine.

While you’re tossing the pasta, gradually add enough pasta water to form a thin sauce to coat the pasta.  
I actually used the whole 1/2 cup of pasta water.

Let’s move onto the breadcrumbs!

Homemade Breadcrumbs:

Note:  You can make your breadcrumbs ahead of time or even the day or week before to cut down on a step.

• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 2 slices sourdough, white or whole wheat/whole grain sandwich bread or whole wheat/whole grain bread, torn into pieces

Pre-heat the oven to 475 degree and position a rack on the top part of the oven. Combine the torn bread and 1 tablespoon olive oil in a food processor.

Pulse until coarse crumbs form.Spread on a rimmed baking sheet.Bake at 475 degrees on upper rack until golden brown, 5 to 6 minutes, tossing once.Serve the pasta topped with breadcrumbs and, if desired, more Parmesan.

 This pasta was super yummy and so easy to make.  I can’t wait for the leftovers tonight!  

I hope that your family enjoys this easy weeknight pantry pasta!

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{ 3 comments… add one }

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  Jillian February 28, 2013 at 5:39 pm

  Did you leave the garlic cloves as the halves, or did you mash them before putting them in the pasta? It doesn’t mention anything in the recipe and I feel the garlicky flavour wouldn’t be in every bite if they weren’t mashed or made smaller before hand

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    jackiegrandy February 28, 2013 at 5:59 pm

    Hi Jillian! Wow, this post is a blast from the past. I actually haven’t made this pasta since I posted it over a year ago! I think I really need to update this post as these are the old framed photos and they’re so yellow
    I just peeled the garlic and then cut the cloves in half. You can actually see the halved pieces in the photo on the baking sheet. The garlic actually tastes great because it’s roasted with the vegetables. If you’re worried about too much garlic flavor, then you can always chop up the garlic halves after they finish roasting. My kids loved this and I know they had garlic chunks in there and I didn’t hear any complaints about it being too garlicky, but we do love our garlic though. I’m going to make this up again, possibly next week so I can re-do this old post.
    I hope that answer helps Jackie

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      jackiegrandy February 28, 2013 at 6:07 pm

      Hi Jillian! Me again! I just updated some of the wording in the post. Some of my older posts don’t have as much detail as my newer ones, so I added more detail to make it easier to understand! I hope it helps! xoxo, Jackie

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