Roasted Cauliflower Casserole with Tomatoes and Goat Cheese - Yes, goat cheese!

My daughter and I went to the Saturday Farmer's Market and I picked up a huge cauliflower. We all like cauliflower - roasted, sauteed, baked, etc. It took up a lot of space in the refrigerator for a couple of days and I would stare at it every time I opened the door. I kept wondering what I would do with it. The spousal unit wanted me to boil it and cover it with cheddar cheese sauce and breadcrumbs and bake it. That's my idea of ruining a completely beautiful cauliflower. But I did want to make something he would like, that would be comfort food-ish, without boiling the flavor out of a deliciously sweet cauliflower. 

While browsing my favorite recipe sites I found a recipe in the NYT for Roasted Cauliflower with Tomatoes and Goat Cheese. At first I wondered how that would work...would I roast the vegetable with tomatoes and goat cheese right on a baking sheet pan? Then I read through it and saw that it was a casserole.  Hmmmm....  sort of like what the husband wanted but ... not.

So, I sliced the cauliflower into thick slabs (sorry, "slabs" is not a very appetizing word) to get as much surface area exposed to the heat as possible.  I set the oven at 450* and doused the cauliflower in extra virgin olive oil, kosher salt and pepper.  I laid the pieces out onto a baking sheet.  Many of the ends of the head fell apart into florettes, that's what you're seeing in the photo below. I forgot to take a shot of the large, intact slices of the head. 

Anyway, I roasted and turned half way through the 45 mins it spent in the oven. I let it cool a bit before removing to a large bowl. While it was cooling I sauteed some onion, garlic, thyme, cinnamon and crushed coriander seeds in a bit of olive oil until very fragrant, then added a 28 oz can of diced tomatoes.  As the sauce simmered and thickened I beat 4 eggs with 3/4 of a log of goat cheese. I use Laura Chanel goat cheese, I think it has a wonderfully balanced flavor. If you absolutely don't care for goat cheese you can use ricotta or cottage cheese as a substitute. But really, the goat cheese with the spices was just delicious.

I poured the tomato sauce into the bowl of cauliflower and mixed it all together then poured it into the baking dish. I then poured the goat cheese/eggs mixture over that and dotted the top with the remaining 1/4 of the goat cheese log.

Here is the 9 x 13 baking dish full of the cauliflower that was mixed with the tomato sauce.  Before I poured the sauce onto the cauliflower I saw that there were a lot of pieces of the coriander seeds and onion floating around along with pieces of tomatoes and I didn't like the way it looked. I could only imagine the mouthfeel of the sauce so I dumped the entire batch of sauce into my handy-dandy Vitamix and pureed away! It made the sauce a very nice consistency and got rid of the chunks of tomatoes and onions and pulverized the coriander seeds. When I gave it a taste it was perfect! All those spices made a great mix, the cinnamon was an outstanding addition to the tomatoes with the coriander and thyme. And the cloves of garlic gave it all a nice mellow flavor.

I popped it into the oven and turned the temp down to 375* and baked it for an hour until it was bubbly and browned. I must say it ate like a lasagna, I cut it into squares and it was oh so delicious! We all enjoyed it and because it was so substantial we didn't have anything else with it.  It was really great. Hot and cheesy (but not too much) and custardy and so full of flavor.  Very satisfying!

Here's my recipe, adapted from the NYT recipe:

Prehead oven to 450*. Cut away bottom of cauliflower stem and trim leaves. Slice cauliflower into 1/2 inch slices. Coat cauliflower with olive oil, salt and pepper. Arrange on baking sheet and bake for 45 minutes, turning half way through the bake time.

Meanwhile, grease a baking pan, heat some olive oil in a saute pan and add onion. Cook until tender, add salt, garlic cloves, thyme and continue cooking until fragrant. Crush coriander seeds (or use ground coriander) and add to pan, cooking until fragrant. Add cinnamon and 28 oz can of tomatoes. Simmer until sauce thickens.  Remove from stove and add to blender (if you prefer it blended and smooth). Pulse/blend until thoroughly mixed. Just take it to the consistency you would like. 

Set aside 1/4 of the goat cheese log, beat 4 eggs then add cheese and continue beating until smooth.  

Add cooled (somewhat) cauliflower to a large bowl, pour tomato sauce mixture over it and mix gently, then spread into greased baking dish. Pour egg/cheese mixture over the cauliflower and dot the top with the remaining 1/4 of the cheese log.  Bake for about an hour in a 375* oven until it's bubbling and the top is lightly browned.  Remove from oven to a cooling rack and cool for about 20 minutes. Then slice and serve.  It will slice up like lasagna and stay intact.  I know! I was surprised too!

We ate the cauliflower for three days. On the second day it tasted even better. On the third, wow. I made chicken cutlets with it the second day and yesterday, meatloaf.  A great accompaniment to a meat dish, for sure. 

Ingredients:

1 large head of cauliflower - trimmed and rinsed

Salt and Pepper

Olive Oil

1 large yellow onion

4 garlic cloves crushed

2 tsp dried thyme leaves

1 28 oz can tomatoes - if you're going to blend it like I did use any kind. If not, use either tomato sauce or diced tomatoes. Whatever you prefer in consistency.

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp coriander - if seeds, crush well

4 large eggs

1 8oz log of goat cheese

Of course, you can adjust the seasonings to your liking. I really liked the cinnamon/coriander mix so I added a bit more.  Let's just say I eyeballed the amount and didn't use a measuring spoon. 

                                             Mangia e statti zitto!

Voilà! Quiche!

I bought a hunk of Le Gruyère cheese, real Le Gruyère AOP cheese imported from Switzerland. There's nothing like it. So creamy, so savory, so delicious.  I decided to make a quiche since I've not made one in a very long time. I have an abundance of quiche ingredients -- broccoli, an assortment of other types of cheeses, ham, bacon, peas, onions, mushrooms, scallions, roasted peppers, etc. But the Le Gruyère was beckoning yodeling to me.  I could imagine those pretty cows grazing in their Alpine meadows with their beautiful bells around their necks, sending their sweet melody over the mountains to the kitchens of the world below, "Buy our cheese! Buy our cheese!" Here are the lovely ladies coming down from their verdant meadows to be milked.

http://www.cheesesfromswitzerland.com/cheese-assortment/le-gruyere-aop.html

So, getting back to the quiche, I had a box of Trader Joe's frozen pie crusts (gasp! yes, I used a premade crust, which really isn't all that bad, honestly...) and sauteed very thinly sliced potatoes. I chopped about 10 slices of cooked bacon, grated about 1 1/2 cups of the gruyère, and 8 large organic farm-fresh eggs (their taste is so different than eggs from the supermarket).  I beat the eggs with a splash of milk (from the dairy farm down the road, which tastes off-the-deliciousness-charts from supermarket milk), salt and pepper.  Then I built the quiche.

The pie crust had come to room temperature on the counter this morning so it was as easy as just pressing it into the pie plate. I used a deep dish 9" Pyrex glass pie plate.  Then I blind baked the crust for about 30 mins until it was lightly browned and cooked almost through. Quiche tastes so much better in a precooked crust. The crust holds up to the wet ingredients and doesn't get soggy or gooey.  

I then layered the thinly sliced potatoes on the bottom of the crust, added the cooked bacon, sprinkled the cheese in an even layer and sprinkled a couple of scallions on top.  Next came the beaten eggs and I popped it into a 350* oven for 50 minutes.  I used my Breville toaster oven to bake the quiche and it came out perfectly, see? 

The crust is a bit ragged, but it will be eaten shortly and no one will notice.  I notice, but no one I'm serving it to will notice, nor will they care.  When food is made with love for those we love no one cares about whether or not it looks picture perfect.  If I were in a retail business where I was selling the quiche then it would look perfect. Absolutely. But for my family and friends... I'll be forgiven and I forgive myself.  Better it should taste good than look good.  When you're home cooking I believe best efforts always count and are satisfactory.

Well, it's cooled sufficiently to gather my court to the table.  I've paired this quiche with a big salad of iceberg lettuce dressed with fresh lemon juice, a bit of roasted garlic I made earlier, sliced roasted peppers & olive oil.  Plain but oh so good!  

Time to mangia! 

Small Town Football Night and My Attitude Adjustment

Last night we went to a high school football game in the town where my husband grew up. It was a beautiful night -- cool with a nice breeze carrying with it the last tendrils of summer warmth and the faint smell of wood smoke. Most of the older folks had light jackets and sweaters in the crooks of their arms, ready to be draped over shoulders once the sun fully set behind the Bald Eagle mountain range close on the horizon. The younger crowd, and surprisingly most of the older crowd, were displaying all the glory of their hometown school spirit -- orange and black t-shirts, sweatshirts, jackets and ballcaps. It was quite the sight to behold. Even our adult daughter wore her fathers 40+ year old team jacket. I'm used to seeing a large portion of the people I work with and the student body sporting the blue and white colors of the local university, but this was really something. It was fun and I felt excited to see all the support for the team in addition to the large turnout for the game.

The home team won the coin toss and deferred. It was only a few minutes to the first touchdown. The Golden Eagles scored and the bleachers began to rumble. Everyone in the bleachers stomping their feet and cheering! It was not only exciting but exhilarating to feel the cheering for the home team! What a great start to the game! And it kept on going from there... at half-time the score was 33-0. Poor Visitors.

We were seated on the first row of our section and as I watched the groups of boys and girls -- ranging in age from 9 or 10 through 15 or 16 -- running back and forth from the concession stand, from the rest rooms, from groups of friends, with their arms looped around each other, the girls laughing and eyes darting, wanting to be seen but not really...the boys in gangs, so cool, so clean, clothes neat, hair combed, I came to realize that these kids were really nice kids. The boys waited for the girls to clear the ramp onto the bleachers before going down, there was no yelling or screaming, no cursing, no pushing or rude behavior. There were quick hellos and lingering eye contact between the cute wrestler and the sweet girl with the giant orange and black bow in her hair. There was an abrupt, "Hi Mallory!" from the chisled faced red-headed boy to the blushing brunette. Her face was flaming red while her friends giggled and hugged her and each other as they scurried to the other end of the section all the while she and he were in an eye-lock.

The little ones were on the shoulders of their "Pap" held high above the crowds as they were taken to get treats. The babies were bundled up in orange and black blankets, their little squeaks and sounds helping to round out the big cheers. The young and very young parents, the grandparents, the dads who lined the fences at the end zones, and the elderly and infirm visitors from the local health care facility, these were the hometown spirit and heart of the team.

My husband tells me many of the last names of the players were the same last names of boys he played football with in that same high school four decades earlier.

After we left and headed for home I couldn't stop thinking about how much of a gift it is for my husband to be able to revisit his past and it still be such a positive experience.  Yes, the town is economically depressed and has been since the 1970s, but they hold a lot of community activities supported by their local churches and social agencies. They have a very good school system, and it's a safe place to raise a family with access to a beautiful community pool, acres and acres of community park, playground, rink, a stocked pond and stream for fishing, and a local library. What more could you ask for or need?

When we moved to the area five years ago I never thought I would develop such a soft spot for that dirty old town I'd been visiting since 1975, when my husband and I first met. Yet, when I think about what makes our country great, I certainly don't think about our government or our elected prostitutes politicians. I think about all the small towns across America just like my husband's small town. Small towns full of people who are doing the best with what they've got, who earn what they have, who teach their sons and daughters what's right and wrong, what's good and evil, and then let them have a go at the world without hovering over them or making excuses for their mistakes. They're accepting. Their temperament is one that is straightforward...what you see is what you get and if you don't like it, well, ok. Towns full of people who work very hard -- in chemical plants, glass factories, garment manufacturers, meatpacking plants, and in days gone by, for the Pennsylvania Railroad like my husband's grandfather and great-grandfather. These small town folks made this nation great, giving its best men to the armed services since the beginning of our country's founding. We have visited the cemeteries at the little country churches out on the back roads and dusty lanes during our Sunday drives and it was surprising to me how many of the headstones mark the remains of Revolutionary War veterans. Yes, you read that correctly, Revolutionary War.

For a long, long time I was not happy to be living here. I was "homesick" for New York/New Jersey. I missed my beautiful house, I missed my beautiful pool, my 10 month job with the great salary. I couldn't stand the "hickness" of this place called Central Pennsylvania. Everyone was a hayseed, a rube. Over time I've come to realize that here there is no pretense. What you see is what you get. Yes, they're plain, they're simple, they're ordinary. But, they love their country, their home teams and their families. And, I'd say they love God too, because the churches here are always full on Sunday and everyone is kind.  Living here reminds me of when I was a kid in the 60s. The family traditions are strong here and the ties that bind are strong as well.

I think I'll stop complaining in my head (I try not to vocalize my criticisms because I don't want to hurt people's feelings since everyone is so nice) about living here in "God's country" and just appreciate it for what it is... a great part of the country that still holds fast to traditional values and community.  It's the America I've missed for a long time and it's about time I quit the sulk and appreciate it.

 I can't wait for the next home game.

The Maid of Orleans, The Heart of France

Falconetti as Joan of Arc

I tuned in to TCM and watched The Passion of Joan of Arc, the 1928 silent French film based on the actual record of the trial of young Joan, the Maid of Orleans. Directed by Carl Dreyer starring Maria Falconetti as Joan.

Her face... her beautiful, tortured face. I can't get it out of my mind. It has been said, and is generally believed by those of the cinema world, that her performance is the finest ever filmed. As a voracious classic film watcher, I would concur. Her performance was haunting, engrossing and heartbreaking. The angles with which the film was shot was unsettling, conveying uncertainty and disorientation. The intense close-ups on the faces of the actors -- who were not permitted to wear any make-up -- are harrowing, especially the judges, who were shot in harsh, high contrast light. Joan is shot in a soft, even light.

The soundtrack was exquisite. The film broadcast on TCM on Sunday night was accompanied by Richard Einhorn's acclaimed 1994 oratorio Voices of Light and Anonymous 4, a female vocal quartet specializing in medieval music. Just beautiful. The bell sounds were recorded at the church in Domremy, Jean's birthplace.

The film has intertitles in French with English subtitles. If you love classic film you should make it a point to watch this one. It is one of the best films I've ever seen in my life.