cauliflower | CookinFanatic

Well folks, I’ve stumbled upon it… and I knew it at first bite!

“It” being the proclaimed “my favorite recipe of the month”

There, I said it. And I’m not kidding. Please and thank you Food & Wine magazine for the recipe idea, sure am glad I’ve got that subscription renewed thank you sisterrrr

I’m not sure if it was the superb quality of this Pomi Pomodoro E Basilico, or the recipe itself, or a combination of the two. But either way, I was hooked!

Disclaimer: I received this product sample for free.

So if you have 30 to 40 minutes to spare and a desire for something deliciously different for dinner, please make this. Trust me, you won’t be sorry

Grass fed ground beef, onion and garlic.

Red pepper flakes, sea salt, black pepper.

Pomi tomato basil sauce, sliced black olives.

Cauliflower. Frozen/microwaved if ya like (hey, I went there )

Tomato basil ground beef black olive mixture.

Freshly grated Mozzarella cheese.

Melted & bubbly.

Topped with Panko bread crumbs. And browned.

Then served.

Salty olives, creamy cheese, toasty bread crumbs made hearty with the ground beef yet light with the cauliflower.

These flavors and textures all just WORKED.

And truth be told ya’ll, this Pomi sauce is seriously legit. I knew when I smelled it that it was going to be simplistically wonderful. And that it was.

Crushed tomatoes, tomato puree, salt, olive oil, tapioca starch, basil, sugar, natural flavour. That’s it.

The sauce had fresh tomato flavor with bursts of basil, like fresh just out of the garden basil… I would definitely place this in my “favorite store bought” sauce category. If not my top favorite. Oh soooo good!

Now hopefully I can find it in a store near me…

Baked Italian-Style Cauliflower
Serves 3-4. Adapted from Food & Wine magazine.

1/2 lb ground beef (I used 85/15 grass fed)
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
26oz. Pomi tomato basil sauce (or your favorite sauce)
about 15 large black olives, halved
2 12oz. packages frozen cauliflower
3 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese
3 tblsp bread crumbs (I used Panko)
red pepper flakes, to taste
sea salt & black pepper, to taste

1. Add ground beef to a pan over medium, brown for about 5 minutes or until partially cooked and some of the fat released. Add onion, cooking another 5 minutes or until it starts to get tender. Finally, add garlic and spices and cook for another minute or two.

Note that if you use a leaner ground beef, you may need some olive oil here.

2. While beef is cooking, microwave cauliflower according to direction.

3. Now add tomato sauce and sliced olives to the beef mixture, cooking another 5 minutes so that flavors combine and beef cooks all the way through.

4. Now begin to layer the ingredients into a lightly oiled baking dish. Cauliflower first. Followed by ground beef tomato basil mixture. Then topped with shredded cheese.

5. Place into a 375F oven for 10 minutes, until cheese gets melty & good. Remove from oven and top with bread crumbs. Broil for another 1-2 minutes until bread crumbs brown up.

Serve!