Cauliflower Italien

April 9, 2002

I've been swapping notes with friends and it seems that everyone is getting heartily sick and tired of the heap of coloured lettuce that so often masquerades as half of a meal these days. The curly red lettuce seems to be one of the worst offenders.

How many times have we picked the other ingredients off our plates and sent the heap of lettuce back to the kitchen? There really is nothing tasty or inviting about a surfeit of large lettuce leaves.

I think one of the problems is that lettuces are available all year round. We have salads summer and winter. There is no respite from them. Truly seasonal food is more fun - the joy of those first new asparagus tips, fresh peas, early season's small broad beans that can be eaten in the pod.

Today's cauliflower recipe is an antidote to the surfeit of rabbits' food. This is one dish where I rather fancy dried basil in preference to fresh, though a combination of the two is also very good. Dried basil has a nice peppery taste that definitely adds something to the dish.

Cauliflower Italien

1 cauliflower divided into florets (discard the large stalk or keep it for soup)
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 red pepper, diced finely
1/4 cup water
4 medium tomatoes
1 teaspoon dried basil
a few leaves of fresh basil, shredded (optional)
salt and pepper

Pour boiling water over the tomatoes and skin them, Chop them in quarters and sprinkle with dried basil. Simmer the onion and garlic in the vinegar and Worcestershire sauce for three to five minutes. Add the cauliflower, red pepper and water and cook for a further three minutes. Season with salt, add the tomatoes and fresh basil, if used, and simmer for about three minutes, shaking the pot to mix the vegetables.

Drain if necessary, and serve.