Cauliflower Sformato

Each week we receive a box of farm fresh fruit and vegetables.  When our delivery arrives it’s a little bit like Christmas morning to open the box and see what fruit and vegetables we’ve received because each week the delivery is based on what is freshest and in season.  One of the inclusions last week was a whole cauliflower.

Cauliflower of course can be steamed and served as a side dish, served au gratin, added to a stir fry, soup or risotto, but I wanted to do something a little different.  So I decided to make Cauliflower Sformato.

Sformato is sometimes described as a savoury soufflé, but the texture is more like a savoury baked custard. It can be served as an appetizer to be enjoyed over a glass of wine, as an entrée or even perhaps a main course at lunch along with a salad.

For my sformato I opted to roast the cauliflower and added truffle salt for a luxurious touch.  I also opted to make miniature sformato’s and serve them with crackers and wine.

Have you had sformato before?

By the way, in some VERY exciting news, our trip to the United States is back on!!  Regular readers will recall we had to cancel our much anticipated trip a few weeks ago as my boyfriend fell over and broke his foot while taking our rubbish bins out (not a task usually considered dangerous but we live on the edge).  Well, when we visited the doctor last week we asked when he expected that my boyfriend would be well enough to travel and he advised the end of the month as surgery was successful and the fracture is healing well, SO we heading over to the United States in the first week of June!!!  I am beyond excited!!

We’ll be visiting New York and Las Vegas, but sadly we had to cancel plans to visit San Francisco, due to restrictions around using our Frequent Flyer points to purchase the flights.  The restrictions also meant we had to come home via Fiji, so we have decided on a 5 day lay over there.  I can’t think of a better way to recover from jet-lag!

Cauliflower Sformato
Makes 6 individual

Béchamel

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cups milk
• 1 clove of garlic, crushed
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons of plain (all purpose) flour
• 1/4 teaspoon of freshly grated nutmeg

Method:

1. Pour the milk into a jug and add the garlic and steep for 15 minutes.
2. In a saucepan over a medium-low heat melt the butter before whisking in the flour.  Cook for a minute to remove the flour taste.
3. Remove the garlic from the milk and gradually whisk in and add the nutmeg.
4. Cook, stirring constantly, until the sauce thickens.  Remove from the heat and decant into a bowl or jug and cover with cling film, ensuring the cling film touches the bechamel to prevent a skin from forming.

Sformato

Ingredients:

• 1 medium head cauliflower (about 800 grams), trimmed into individual flowerets
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon of fine truffle salt
• 1/4 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius (355 Fahrenheit).
2. Line a roasting pan with baking paper and add the cauliflower.  Drizzle with the olive oil and toss to combine and roast for 15 minutes or until the cauliflower is cooked.  Set aside to cool.
3. Process the cauliflower in a food processor until smooth.
4. Whisk the eggs in a large bowl and add the bechamel.  Mix until well combined.
5. Using a spatula stir in the cauliflower puree, parmesan, salt and pepper.
6. Spoon the mixture into well greased individual moulds (panna cotta moulds are perfect for this) and place into a roasting pan.  Fill the roasting pan with hot tap water until it comes half way up the side of the moulds and bake at 180 degrees Celsius (355 Fahrenheit) for 15 to 20 minutes or until set.
7. Cool in the mould for 10 minutes and then unmould.