I love any variation of pasta with cauliflower; I usually manage to include many of the tender leaves in the dish, and not just for their color.

For a baked version, I’ve almost always used a great recipe from ‘Cucina Simpatica‘, but Tuesday evening I didn’t have 2 of the ingredients needed, so I looked elsewhere, and pulled this Martha Rose Shulman recipe out of my files. I had only enough cauliflower for a half portion, so unfortunately there were no leftovers this time (this sort of thing always seems to taste even better the second time around).

• the ingredients were 3 small heads of yellow cauliflower form Norwich Meadows Farm, a pinch of Spanish Valgosa Safinter saffron, one large clove of Keith’s Farm rocambole garlic, 2 Agostino Recca salted Sicilian anchovies from Buon Italia, half of a can of domestic San Marzano tomatoes, a tablespoon of parsley from Keith’s Farm, 9 ounces of Rigorosa Gragnano rigatoni from Eataly Flatiron, and an ounce of Sini Fulvi Pecorino Romano D.O.C. from Whole Foods Market
• the wine was an Oregon (Willamette Valley) white, Chris Baker Willamette Valley Pinot Gris 2017, from Naked Wines
• remembering the day after, as I write this, that baked pasta has an association with Renaissance Italy and the Medici, it was seemly that the music we enjoyed with the meal was the album, ‘Firenze 1616’, a collection of music from the late-renaissance in Italy