*Welcome to Cooking Without Recipes, in which we teach you how to make a dish we love, but don’t worry too much about the nitty-gritty details of the recipe, so you can create your own spin. *
When you come across a dish that's not only easy to make but also provides the delightful gift of built-in leisure time (read on), you hang onto it with all you’ve got. For me, that meal is a garlicky, roasted cauliflower pasta with lots of Parmesan cheese, pine nuts, and breadcrumbs. Once you get the cauliflower in the oven and whip up the Parm butter, it's time to claim your reward: the blissful, 20-minute period before you need to start cooking your pasta. (I recommend using this time to squeeze in an episode of TV, take a hot shower, or finally retrieving that thing that fell behind your couch/refrigerator/table a week ago.)
In less than an hour, you'll be digging into a comforting meal that should theoretically make five to six servings, but often ends up as two servings in my house. Here’s how I do it:
On a sheet pan, drizzle a head of chopped cauliflower and six skin-on garlic cloves with some olive oil, salt, pepper, and red chile flakes. Roast at 425°, tossing occasionally, until the cauliflower is caramelized and crisp, about 30 minutes. Once cool, peel the roasted garlic cloves.
In a large bowl, combine a cup of grated Parmesan, three tablespoons of butter, a pinch of salt, two tablespoons of toasted pine nuts, and a quarter-cup of toasted breadcrumbs. (Pro tip: Toast stale bread until lightly golden, then use a food processor to pulse into crumbs. Store in a large resuable plastic bag in the freezer and never not have breadcrumbs again.)
Meanwhile, bring a pot of salted water to a boil and cook a pound of short pasta (like cavatelli). Drain the pasta, reserving about a cup of the cooking liquid (I usually end up using around quarter-cup). Toss the hot pasta with the cauliflower, garlic cloves, Parmesan butter mixture, and enough pasta water to mix it all together. Garnish with a handful of torn parsley leaves.