Meatless Monday: Cauliflower Soup

I've found that I'm slightly rebellious and haphazard when it comes to following recipes, so I wasn't sure if I should post the "real" recipe for this Cauliflower Soup, or the one I actually ended up using. I'm going with the latter, but you can find the real/full version of this Mario Batali recipe here. I'm sure it's delicious...you know, since he's a professional chef and all. I, on the other hand, am a last-minute chef and found that I didn't have all of the ingredients listed in his recipe, so I patched it up and called it dinner. And it was good. Really good.

Cauliflower Soup

4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium head of cauliflower
4 small cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 cup basic tomato sauce
4 cups vegetable stock
6 ounces mezzi rigatoni
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Chop the cauliflower into bite-sized florets. In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat and add the cauliflower and salt. Stir frequently until just beginning to become tender and lightly browned.

Add garlic, tomato sauce and chicken stock and water, if needed, to bring the level of liquid to cover the cauliflower. Stir and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook uncovered until the cauliflower is very tender, about 25 minutes.

Add more water to bring the liquid back to its original level, season to taste with Salt and pepper, and bring to a boil. Add the rigatoni and cook at a low boil for the exact time the package instructions call for.

At exactly the time indicated on the package instructions, the soup will be ready. The soup should be thick and relatively emulsified from the starch of the pasta boiling together with the broth. Check the seasoning. Serve the soup hot with freshly ground black pepper and a drizzle of olive oil.

I ended up using several cups more of water and adding a little chicken bullion (you could add veggie) for flavor, but I think it was because of the pasta that I used, which was not the one called for in the recipe. I forgot to take a photo because I was so eager to eat this and only remembered when I was putting the leftovers away. You can see from the photo that we could have still used a little more broth for the leftovers. They were delicious all week nonetheless.


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