Chef Jim Occhiogrosso certainly keeps busy on Saturday nights! His latest creation is a Roasted Parmesan Cauliflower Pasta that will make you a veggie lover in no time. He starts by lining his sheet pan with parchment paper and tossing chopped cauliflower in olive oil, salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic, seasoned breadcrumbs, and some of the cheap powdery parm cheese. (Ok, ok, relax. It gets better.) The pan goes into the oven at 450F for 20 minutes. At the 15-minute mark, he pulls out the pan and adds good Parmesan cheese and lets that bubble for the remaining 5 minutes. (If you know Jim, you knew he wasn’t going to only use the green shaker, right?)
While that’s in the oven, he makes an al dente pot of pasta using very salty water and infuses olive oil with basil in a sauté pan. When he’s ready to plate, he adds a cup of salty pasta water to the finished twirls, a good drizzle of the homemade basil oil, diced provolone cheese, and then mixes in the roasted cauliflower. Chef Jim finishes with some flake salt and a few grinds of fresh pepper. He favors just a sprinkling of red pepper on the top, so add as you wish.
jenslittleblackbook.com 