A couple of years ago Judith Thurman had a great piece in The New Yorker about pine nuts (sadly still not available to non-subscribers). She off-handedly included a great cauliflower recipe with a dirty secret. (Here's Gustiamo's version of that recipe.) She says the dirty secret is pine nuts: I say it's anchovies.
Regardless — here it is.
Boil a cauliflower for about seven minutes. Let it cool: heat six tablespoons of olive oil in a cast iron fry pan: add a minced onion, cook until translucent, five or ten minutes. (Start some pasta at this point.)
Add the cooked florets, a little saffron, and — for grittiness — some anchovies. Mash and mix them with the cauliflower and onions. Roast the pine nuts a little first for some extra toastiness, then mix in about one-quarter cup pine nuts and one-quarter cup golden raisins or currents. In a little chicken broth gently simmer the mix, stirring well so the anchovies disappear into the whole.
It's a unique recipe — sweet, salty, healthy, inexpensive. Top with toasted breadcrumbs for the grit of appetite, sated.
Kit Stolz 