Pasta chi Vrocculi Arriminati

Cauliflower mashed into the sauce, with saffron, raisins and pine nuts.

Fish. Not vegetarian — contains fish.

Ingredients

• 1 large cauliflower, in florets
• 400 g bucatini
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4 anchovy fillets
• 50 g raisins, soaked
• 40 g pine nuts
• a good pinch of saffron
• 60 g coarse breadcrumbs, toasted dry
• 5 tablespoons olive oil
• 1.5 teaspoons salt

Method

1. Boil the cauliflower in plenty of salted water until very soft, 12 minutes. Lift it out and KEEP THE WATER — the pasta cooks in it later and takes its colour and flavour from it.
2. Soften the onion in the oil, melt the anchovies into it, then add the drained raisins and pine nuts.
3. Steep the saffron in a little hot cauliflower water and add it.
4. Add the cauliflower and MASH IT INTO THE PAN with a wooden spoon. 'Arriminati' means stirred, and that is the instruction: the florets are meant to break down into a rough yellow sauce, not to stay whole.
5. Cook the pasta in the cauliflower water and finish it in the pan with a ladle of that water.
6. SCATTER THE TOASTED BREADCRUMBS AT THE TABLE, not in the pan. Stirred in they go soft immediately.
7. No cheese. The anchovy is doing that job.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Italy · All recipes