Entrée, Fall, Winter

ROASTED CAULIFLOWER + KALE PASTA

Sara Forte ·

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I had a crop of pregnant friends this season and I wanted to post this pasta dish here because I think casserole-type foods are such an easy food to deliver or serve to friends (or make and freeze should you be the sort of person that preps ahead like that).

You guys ask all the time what sort of meals I deliver or make-ahead and most of those are now living over on SK Cooking Club. Disclaimer, not all vegetarian. Some of the favorites there are a Turkey Bolognese, Butternut Turkey Chili, Carrot Ginger Soup, Olive Bar Sheetpan Dinner, Jeweled Farro Salad to name a few. We have a Veggie Chili coming up soon that will also be perfect to add to this list and a Cauliflower Tikka Masala that is delicious!

I baked this before giving it to my friends because, well, we needed to take a photo, but I would assemble it all and cover it in foil before delivering, then let them do that final bake so it doesn’t dry out. Deliver it along with a super simple, light, green salad and a bottle of wine. And probably chocolate too.

I made notes below on dietary swaps. I personally can’t eat cow’s milk dairy products (and eggs now too, quite annoying), and if you’re the same, you could use either a nut-based ricotta or find a sheep’s milk ricotta at well-stocked markets or Whole Foods. You may want to use less, as they tend to be stronger in flavor and often times richer. Like I said, more notes below.

I hope your New Year has started off well. It feels like flus and colds are all around, so I’m wishing you wellness and I’ll post a soup recipe here soon. Take good care!

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ROASTED CAULIFLOWER + KALE PASTA

Serves 6

I am going to add substitution notes here as we do with Cooking Club in case this helps anyone. Don’t hesitate to reach out with questions! There are two kinds of kale here because it cooks down and I like my pasta dishes heavy on the vegetables. You can skip the baby kale if this sounds like too much…even though it’s not. Anchovies are so good here and they basically dissolve in the roasting step so you don’t know they’re there, but you could use a sprinkle of capers if they creep you out. Add them in the last 10 minutes of roasting

Recipe Tips

Dairy Free: Kite Hill does make a dairy-free ricotta which would totally work here. Laura of The First Mess has a vegan pine nut parm that would be great sprinkled on top!

Gluten Free: Use a brown rice based pasta. We also use chickpea or lentil pastas, but they don’t sit well with a lot of liquid, so only use those if you’re planning to eat it right away.

Carnivore Option: If you are looking to add animal protein, the frozen mini meatballs can be stirred into the whole situation.

Prep Ahead: Roast the cauliflower and kale, and cook your pasta in advance.


Ingredients

1 head cauliflower (about 1.5 lbs)
3 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1/4-1/2 tsp. sea salt
fresh ground pepper
1 Tbsp. everything bagel seasoning (or any all-purpose type seasoning)
2 anchovy filets, optional, but promise you won’t know they’re there

1 large head lacinato kale, ribbed and chopped
3 cloves garlic, grated

12 oz. (3/4 lb.) rigatoni pasta (or GF pasta)
two handfuls of baby kale (I know, double kale!)

12 oz. ricotta
one large lemon, zest and juice, divided
1 tsp. Italian seasoning
salt and pepper
1/2 cup cream
1 egg
4 oz./1 cup fontina, grated
1 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
2 oz. parmesan cheese, grated
1/2 cup walnuts, roughly chopped
red pepper flakes

fresh parsley or basil or thyme or a mix, to finish

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425’. Break the cauli into florets onto a rimmed baking sheet and drizzle them with olive oil, salt, pepper, bagel seasoning and toss everything to coat. You’ll want to use your clean hands here, and rub everything into the cauli. Put the anchovies on the tray, and roast everything for 35 minutes. The anchovy will dissolve, don’t worry, you won’t know it’s there. If you’re super freaked, use 2 Tbsp. capers. Pull the pan, add the kale, garlic and toss everything around so some oil coats the kale. Pop it back in the oven for 10 minutes for the kale to wilt a bit (if you’re using capers instead of anchovies, add them here). Pull and set aside. This can be done in advance and stored in the fridge.

While the vegetables roast, bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil. Cook the pasta accordingly to al dente instructions - about 11 minutes. In another large mixing bowl, stir together the ricotta, lemon zest, Italian seasoning, pinch of salt and fresh ground pepper, cream, egg, 1/4 cup parmesan and half of the fontina. Whisk everything well to combine. Drain the pasta, reserve a bit of pasta water, and add the noodles to the cheese bowl. Stir to mix. Add the cauli and kale, plus the handfuls of baby kale, to the bowl and stir again. Add a generous splash of pasta water, one more stir.

Leave the heat on 425’. Grease a 2 qt. baking dish or 10-12” cast iron pan. Tip the pasta mixture in. Squeeze the lemon juice all over the top of the pasta. Sprinkle the remaining fontina and parm and some red pepper flakes on top. Loosely cover the dish with foil. Bake, covered, for 10 minutes, turn the heat up to 475’, uncover the dish, sprinkle the walnuts if using, and bake another 10ish minutes until the top is just bronzed and bubbly. Remove to cool slightly and sprinkle heaps of fresh herbs over the top.

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FLOURLESS PEPPERMINT STICK CAKE

Sara Forte ·

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Heyo! A quick hello and a yummy, easy treat. I tested this for SKCC last week and it came together so quickly, I thought you may need this here for a holiday dinner coming up. It uses three dirty dishes and calls for a short list of ingredients and finishes with a sprinkle of candy cane holiday cheer on the top for crunch. The cake is basically like a large brownie and doesn’t have any flour in it so it works for our gluten free friends.

We didn’t wrangle an official gift guide this year, but included a few favorite things in our newsletter going out tomorrow so sign up if you haven’t already.

FLOURLESS PEPPERMINT STICK CAKE

Serves 8

Dairy-free friends! You can use a vegan butter such as Miyokos in place of the regular butter here. Check your chocolate to make sure there is no milk fat in it. As for the whipping cream, it will have a hint of coconut, but I’d follow this.

If you do not have a springform pan, any 8inch baking dish is fine, it’s just easier to remove with springform.


Ingredients

½ cup/ 1 stick butter
7 oz. semisweet or bittersweet chocolate (something 70% or above)
4 eggs, separated
3/4 cup cane sugar
1/4 cup Dutch processed cocoa
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. peppermint extract

For topping

8 oz./ 1 pint whipping cream
3 Tbsp. powdered sugar
2 Tbsp. mascarpone or cream cheese, room temperature
crushed candy canes, for garnish, optional


Directions

Preheat the oven to 350’ and line a 8” springform pan with parchment. Butter all sides of the pan.

Put the butter and chocolate in a heatproof bowl, over a pot of simmering water. Warm until melted, stir to combine. Take it off the heat to cool down.

Separate the eggs, place the whites in a large bowl or stand mixer, where you can whisk them until soft and pillowy. Put the yolks in another bowl, and mix in the sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla, and peppermint extract. Stir in the chocolate mixture to combine. Gently fold in the egg whites. Scrape the mixture into the prepared pan and bake it on the middle rack for 25-28 minutes or until the top looks puffed and when you shake it, the center isn’t jiggly. Transfer to a wire rack to let it cool completely.

While it cools, whip the heavy cream until it just begins to look fluffy. Add the powdered sugar and mascarpone or cream cheese and whip until peaks form. This can be stored in the fridge for about 2 hours. Assemble just before serving.

Remove the cake from the springform pan and put it on a plate. Top with the whipping cream, leaving a border around the edge of the cake. Sprinkle generously with candy cane pieces.

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Feeding Babies

Little Sprouts, an e-cookbook

Sara Forte ·

We wrote an e-Book!

Writing that makes me feel very modern, even though I’m still not sure we’re doing this right. I feel like maybe I should have taken a course on this or something?

I enjoy cooking and I really like eating, but we have two kids with opinions… about everything, actually. Feeding them can be tricky. I think there is a lot of angst from parents around their kids and food, and I want to take up space in that conversation.

 

“Are they eating enough?”

“Ok, but are they eating enough vegetables?”

“I am embarrassed by how often they eat pizza or mac n cheese.”

This e-book gives a handful of ideas to add vegetables into foods that you find they already like, hopefully making meal time less of a strain on you or them. I wrote two cookbooks before we had children and my cooking has evolved so much since then. Evolved because of them and because of myself, but this piece feels like I am handing a collection of favorite recipes to a friend. Nothing to prove, no effort to impress you with my creativity - just real food that I have on regular rotation for our kids, and it feels like it may help someone else trying to do the same. Perhaps an excerpt from the book’s intro will help that feeling make sense:

“Before I had children, I forecasted they would eat everything my husband and I enjoy - big vegetable lovers, lots of color and seasonal produce, requesting green smoothies (hold the banana, add extra kale, mom!), beyond their years in taste given what I do for work. Then they actually existed in my life, and I realized I may have built an unrealistic expectation. I cook constantly. For over a decade, I have been writing recipes for our food blog (Sprouted Kitchen), have published two cookbooks, freelanced for other food publications, and most currently, run a meal planning subscription service (Sprouted Kitchen Cooking Club). I know my way around making a meal, but having kids at the table feels like it complicates the ease of which that once was for me. I make most of our food from scratch, but my kids, who are 3 and 5, cannot be persuaded with any amount of convincing nutritional information to choose broccoli over a hot dog. So, how do we settle somewhere between those things? I want them to have a healthy relationship with food. I love seasonal produce, home cooking, and general wellness, but I refuse to make meal time a battle. We have to eat for energy and nutrition, but also for the pleasure and practice of having a moment to sit down together at a table. My job is to provide nutritious food and a loving environment; it is their job to eat if they are hungry and no, I am not a short order cook. Those convictions are easier to put on paper than hold to at dinner time. I get it.”

It is a collection of 30 recipes (a few are favorites from here on SK and SK Cooking Club) that focus on getting more produce into your wee ones. I can’t guarantee they’ll like everything in there, but it’s adult-friendly too so you have that! The recipes are geared for ages 2+, and they are simple and easy to follow. Most of them are gluten and dairy-free, and when they’re not, notes are made to help accommodate. While it’s not exclusively vegetarian, most of the recipes do lean that direction, while many of the breakfast recipes include eggs.

(I like to be as clear as possible so ya’ll know what to expect!) I understand that you can flip through a book at the bookstore and here you cannot. The e-book is divided by breakfast, snacks + lunch, and meals. I may be biased (having birthed the children in most of the photos), but the imagery is beautiful too ;)

Whether you buy this e-book or not, I hope you know you are doing an excellent job. Parenting is hard and food is a sticky subject. If some days everything they eat is some shade of beige, they’ll be ok. I hope getting more color into your babes doesn’t feel defeating, and if it does, may I make that seem more accessible with Little Sprouts. xo

ROASTED BUTTERNUT + BLACK BEAN QUESADILLAS

From Little Sprouts
Makes 4

My children would eat bean and cheese burritos every day if given the choice. It doesn’t always work, but adding vegetables into things I know they already like, is helpful. Here, we are adding taco seasoned squash and a handful of greens (whatever you can pull off - cilantro, baby kale etc.) in with the refried black beans and cheese. I smash the squash down so they melt in with the cheese a bit. I’ve also had luck with shredded zucchini in the summer.

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Batched Taco Seasoning:

Mix all of these spices together and store them in an airtight container.

  • 2 Tbsp. chili powder
  • 1 Tbsp. cumin
  • 1 tsp. garlic powder
  • 1 tsp. onion powder
  • 1 tsp. light brown sugar
  • 2 tsp. dried oregano
  • 1 tsp. paprika
  • 1 1/2 tsp. sea saltdash of cayenne, to taste

I am including a recipe for a homemade taco seasoning, but we also like the one from Thrive market because it isn’t too spicy.

Ingredients

4 cups cubed (about 1”) butternut squash (from roughly one small squash)
1 Tbsp. avo or olive oil
1 Tbsp. taco seasoning
Salt, as needed
4 whole grain tortillas
1 13 oz. can refried black beans
1 cup chopped cilantro
2 cups melty cheese - a Mexican blend, white cheddar or non-dairy sub
Coconut or avocado oil, for cooking

instructions

Preheat the oven to 425’. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper for easy clean up. 

Pile the squash cubes onto the baking sheet and drizzle them with the oil, taco seasoning and another sprinkle of salt. Toss everything to coat and spread them in an even layer. Roast for 25 minutes until edges are browned and squash is tender. Remove to cool slightly. 

Meanwhile, spread the beans over the top of the tortilla. Add a few spoonfuls of the cooked squash and use the back of a fork to smoosh them down a bit. Sprinkle the top with a handful of cheese and a generous amount of cilantro. 

You can pan-fry them, or to do a batch all at once, placing the open-faced quesadillas on a baking sheet and heating them in the oven for 10 minutes to warm through, then just fold them over.

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