Buttery Cauliflower Prosciutto Pasta

Hmm. I make a lot of pasta. Or, at least, I post a lot of pasta. I think this is because pasta is one of those intuitive things for me. Some people have grilling, some people have casseroles, and it seems my thing is pasta. I may need to expand a bit. In the meantime, however, here's a lovely, simple recipe for a quick, fairly inexpensive week-night supper for two. This one's totally out of my own head, although I got the inspiration from a cauliflower side dish recipe in Andrew Carmellini's new book, Urban Italian, which, by the way, I can't wait cook the hell out of.

Ingredients:

- 2 large cloves of garlic, minced or passed through a garlic press

- 1 small shallot, sliced

- 3-4 tbs. butter

- extra-virgin olive oil

- 1/2 head (about 4 cups) cauliflower with the florets cut into rough, half inch slices

- 2 cups dry pasta (I used campanelle, but any heartier shape will do - no angel hair though)

- 8-10 slices of good prosciutto, cut into broad, 1 inch pieces

- salt

- pepper

- 1/4-ish tsp. dried dill.

- sage. If you have fresh sage leaves, awesome. If you don't (because really, who has those just hanging around on a Thursday night) you can 1/8 tsp. dried.

*Prep all of your ingredients first because this moves kind of fast once you get going.

Process:

1. Fill a pot with water and 1 tbs. of salt and set to boil. Cook the pasta until al dente, reserving 1 cup of pasta-cooking water when you drain it. Don't rinse the pasta, just put it back in the pot and cover it - you want the starches to help the delicate butter sauce stick.

2. While the pasta's cooking, melt the butter in a 12 inch saute pan. Wait until it gets foamy.

3. When the butter is foamy, add the shallot and garlic. Cook until fragrant - about 30 sec.

4. When you can start to smell that killer butter/garlic smell, add the slices of cauliflower. Cook with the shallots and garlic, stirring frequently, for about two min.

5. When the cauliflower is starting to look slightly softer, but is still very, very crisp in the mouth, add salt and pepper to taste (easy on the salt since your pasta will be nicely salted), the dill and the dried sage (*of you're using fresh sage leaves, put them in, whole, with the shallot and garlic - you'll remove them later). Add a good dash of olive oil and continue to saute for about 4-5 min. - until the cauliflower is just starting to soften.

6. Add the reserved pasta water, 1/4 cup at a time, to the saute. You don't have to use all of it, just put in enough so that the saute turns into a delicate sauce with a consistency you like. Turn the heat to low and allow to continue cooking for 1-2 minutes.

7. When the cauliflower and sauce are done, the sauce should look lightly milky and the cauliflower should be softened, but still firm. Pour the sauce over the pasta and stir until it's all coated.

8. Add the slices of prosciutto and stir again.

9. Serve warm with a good parmesan and a big appetite. It's surprisingly filling and the savory, buttery, salty goodness is hard to put down.