whole baked cauliflower with tomato and olive sauce

When you want to bring Mediterranean summer into your home, through your kitchen, I recommend you make this dish. Out of the many vegetables recipes in Jamie's book, this is the one recipe I have made many times, especially during the colder months of the year because it's very comforting and delicious, of course.

I think this is a very clever way to cook cauliflower because it half boils and half steams in the tomato and olive sauce. Start by making the sauce in a pan big enough for the cauliflower later. Add chopped red onion, garlic, chopped cauliflower stalk and olive oil in the pan and let it softened for ten minutes. Add a handful of olives, anchovy and finely chopped parsley stalks and let them cook for a couple of minutes before adding the tinned tomatoes and a good swig of red wine vinegar. Stir everything together and bring to a boil.

I suggest you check the seasoning at this point before putting in the cauliflower as it's gonna be tricky to stir the sauce once the cauliflower is in the pan. Take the cauliflower and gently push it down into the sauce. Drizzle it with extra virgin olive oil, put the lid on and let it simmer on low heat for fifty minutes. In this time, your home will be filled with the most beautiful smell... so, enjoy!

I serve the dish in the pan the cauliflower has cooked in and it looks rather pretty; different because cauliflower is normally broken into florets.


It's the perfect accompaniment to roast lamb, but sometimes, I like to have this with just a big piece of crusty bread and use the bread to soak up all the sauce. Delish!