The Only Newsletter I Care About This Week
Supporting anything Back in the Day Bakery does for the rest of my life.
Spaghetti with Melted Cauliflower Sauce
Carla Lalli Music via her Patreon which is worth every cent
Some believe that love at first sight doesn't actually exist and that the moment when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with someone shows up in the most innocuous of ways. A realization that dons on you while watching them put the groceries away. Noticing an eccentricity for the first or the five thousandth time that lands in bright, new way. Seeing the way they are friendly to guy at the car rental counter and, like a phantom tap on the shoulder, you think to yourself 'I have to be involved with this human as much time and space as possible from now until I die.'
I suppose that's what happened last night, eating a bowl of this pasta on the couch while watching Erika Girardi completely gaslight her fellow cast-mates*. Softly and without warning, the thought just breezed through my mind: "This is my favorite pasta."
I wouldn't have planned it and I have never seen it coming. But I want this pasta to be with me for the rest of my days. I guess what I'm saying is, I'm in love!
*In this house, we are firmly planted on Team Stracke.
My further thoughts/edits in peach :)
INGREDIENTS
1 medium cauliflower head (about 1 pound) I've also used zucchini and broccoli and it's also delicious
1 large shallot
6 garlic cloves
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
4 anchovy fillets packed in oil, drained
Kosher salt; freshly black pepper
1 teaspoon mild chile flakes, such as Aleppo - I used red chili flakes
1 pound spaghetti
½ cup grated Parmigiano (2 ½ ounces), plus more for serving
Handful mint, roughly chopped or basil or neither
1 lemon, cut in half *Optional
INSTRUCTIONS
Trim the base of the cauliflower but don’t core it. Snap off the outermost leaves from the base and leave the pale green inner ones. Roughly chop the cauliflower. Working in two batches, transfer cauliflower to a food
processor and pulse until pieces are no bigger than ½-inch.
I don't own a food processor, so I just roughly chopped the cauliflower until it was in pieces about the size of an elbow macaroni and it worked great. When I made this with Zucchini, I did the same thing.
Finely chop the shallot. Thinly slice the garlic.
Heat olive oil in a medium Dutch oven or other heavy-bottomed pot over medium. Add shallot and garlic and season with salt and pepper. Cook until garlic is translucent, about 2 minutes. Add anchovies (Yes - these are important. You won't taste anchovy, but you will taste delicious flavor) and cook, stirring, until anchovies disintegrate, 1 minute more. Add cauliflower and season with mild chile flakes plus more salt and pepper. Cook, stirring, until cauliflower is coated in oil and starting to sweat, 5 to 7 minutes.
Lower heat to very low, cover pot, and cook, stirring occasionally, until cauliflower is lightly browned and essentially rendered to very tasty mush, 30 to 35 minutes. I like to do this step on super low heat with the lid on. It's kind of the magic of it... you open up that lid after 30 minutes and it's a delicious mush that I have to keep myself from just eating with a spoon as I stand over it.
Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. When cauliflower is almost done, add spaghetti to water and cook, stirring occasionally, until very al dente, 3 to 4 minutes less than package instructions (do not overcook; it will finish cooking in sauce). Using tongs or a mesh spider, transfer pasta to cauliflower along with about 1 cup pasta cooking liquid (or, reserve about 2 cups of cooking liquid, then drain pasta in a colander). Bring sauce to a simmer over medium-high and cook pasta, stirring and tossing constantly as you gradually add ½ cup Parm. Continue to cook, tossing and adding more pasta liquid as needed, until spaghetti is just al dente and sauce has thickened enough to generously coat pasta, 3 to 4 minutes. Squeeze juice from lemon halves into pot and add mint; stir to combine.
Serve pasta with more parm at the table.
It's September, baby!
True Heads will know it is my birth month. And if you didn't already know that, by months end, man oh man... You will know! Why? Because I'm a total birthday monster. Not in perhaps the most obvious of ways... I bring to the table less of a "it's my party and I'll cry if I want to," tiara-wearing brattiness and more of an Eat, Pray, Love, near constant, self-narrated reflection of the year I'm wrapping up along with an earnest thoughtfulness towards one that is ahead. And buckle up, because you all better be freaking ready to Eat, Pray and Love right along with me on this one in particular... That's right, folks. We've got ourselves a Milestone Birthday on our hands. I repeat, a Milestone Birthday. Ya girl is turning 30.
If there's anything that makes a milestone birthday feel even more ominous, it's pending health concerns, dietary changes, a Delta spike in your community and the seemingly rapid breakdown of all of humanity at large. Yee-haw!
Have you ever turned 30 before? What was it like? (Were you a single, childless, female when it happened? If not, I truly couldn't care less about your thoughts on the matter). There's a lot of false stress around turning 30. People (men) want you to believe that 30 is the final twirl down the toilet bowl, but I'm hearing opposing reports from... wait for it... real life, actual women. Word not the street is that it's actually super chill and essentially overnight, every insecurity disappears as you turn into Cameron Diaz. When women talk about turning 30, it carries with it a mysticism unlike any age before it. The beginning of a great letting go (giving up?). Finally appreciating your natural hair. Annoying things like exercise and saving money start to come easier. Suddenly being really good at grocery shopping. Knowing how to drink in a chic way. Nothing is perfect, but that's exactly the point -- acceptance of the cellulite of your life.
Friends, I'm getting there. But as I am still a 29 year old fool for a few more weeks, I'm doing this cute little thing where my feelings towards 30 change depending on the hour - oscillating between excitement for these peak years and complete panic that the youth has finally completely drained from my body. I can't quite decide on where I stand. I suppose it doesn't quite matter either way.
We will be exploring this journey together in the coming weeks, months and yes, years because if there's anything I love talking about more than Taylor Swift lyrics, it's my birthday.
Other Important September Things:
- The relaunch of The Home Ec website
- And with that, the launch of my very first product (next week!)
- Some very self-important newsletters
- The aforementioned grand finale of the birthday