Cauliflower Baked with Macaroni and Cheese

Cauliflower and pasta are an unusual but very successful culinary combination of ingredients in a casserole. Hearty pasta and succulent cauliflower combine into one ensemble thanks to sour cream and cheese. The dish turns out to be light, tasty, and original.

Cook: 40 mins

Servings: 4

Ingredients

• Cauliflower (fresh or frozen) – 500 g
• Pasta (feathers, spirals, shells) – 180 g
• Hard cheese – 100 g
• Sour cream – 60 g
• Salt – 1.5 teaspoon (+ to taste)
• Ground black pepper – to taste
• Olive oil – 2 tbsp
• Fresh dill (for serving) – 2 branches

Directions

1. Prepare all ingredients. Cauliflower can be used both fresh and frozen (without first defrosting). Take sour cream of any fat content, and pasta from durum wheat – feathers, spirals, or shells.

   

2. Disassemble the cauliflower into inflorescences and remove the thick parts of the stem (stalk).
3. Boil 1 liter of water, add 0.5 teaspoons of salt to it, and layout the cauliflower. Boil cabbage inflorescences for 5 minutes, they should not boil. Drain and place the cauliflower on a plate and cool slightly.
4. Boil 1.5 liters of water, add 1 teaspoon of salt, and send pasta in a saucepan. Boil the pasta after boiling again for a couple of minutes less than indicated on the package. (Do not overcook the pasta a little so that it is “on the tooth” – al dente). Discard the pasta in a colander.
5. While the pasta has cooled down a little, grate the cheese on a coarse grater and chop the dill finely.

   

6. Combine the boiled cauliflower, pasta, chopped cheese (1/3 for sprinkling), and dill in a deep bowl. Add sour cream and 1 tablespoon. a spoon of olive oil, stir.
7. Add salt and black pepper to taste. You need very little salt since both pasta and cabbage were cooked in salted water.
8. Brush a baking dish with the remaining olive oil. Transfer the prepared mixture into it and sprinkle the remaining cheese evenly on top.
9. Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Bake the pasta and cabbage for 15 minutes to melt the cheese and brown a little.
10. Cauliflower baked with macaroni and cheese is ready. The dish can be served hot and right in the mold, the cheese is appetizingly reaching for the fork – this is very, very appetizing!)
11. Cauliflower with pasta can also be cooked as a side dish for meat or fish dishes.

    

Bon Appetit!