One of the great benefits of my collaboration with Milk Street is sometimes getting a new cookbook before it publishes. One came last week, and I have been devouring the recipes and stories it contains. It is Milk Street Backroads Italy: Finding Italy’s Forgotten Recipes by Christopher Kimball and J.M. Hirsch. It was apparent that both spent a great amount of time in Italy.
I loved the backroads stories of the recipes and sources of the ingredients used in Italian home cooking and small trattoria restaurants, tiny mountain eateries in small towns and coastal recipes handed down through generations. There is another article every few pages focusing on one ingredient or a particular cook and region, making this book a wonderful reading experience as well as a cooking one.
It was such a hard decision on which to choose to cook this week as the book is loaded with possibilities! There are, of course, lots of pasta recipes, but also more from soups and salads to desserts, pizza and breads, and more. Many different tomato based sauces are presented. But, I thought it would be nice to highlight a recipe that is a bit different, one that works as a wonderful side dish, but would also be a great meatless main course. It is called Pasta ai Due Formaggi e Cavolfiore (Two Cheese Pasta with Cauliflower). There is a story about the woman who cooked this for Christopher Kimball in her own kitchen, relating how he thought it wouldn’t be that special, but was surprised at the flavor a simple change in cooking method made.
The recipe is on the next page, and I read it carefully before beginning as it was indeed a different way of cooking.
It starts with boiling the cauliflower in large pieces, but not until it was fully cooked.
Scoop the cauliflower into a bowl, then add the pasta to the still boiling water.
While the pasta cooks, again not to fully done, chop the cauliflower into bite size pieces. Place the pieces into a large skillet and saute in a bit of olive oil seasoned with garlic until lightly browned, adding a nice dimension of flavor to the dish.
Drain the partially cooked pasta, reserving the cooking water, and add the pasta to the cauliflower in the skillet. Add some of the cooking water, and continue to cook until both the pasta and cauliflower are done to al dente.
Add the cheeses, one at a time, and stir with a bit more pasta cooking water if needed to create a creamy sauce. Yum, this could easily take center stage as a meatless main course.
I wanted to do just a bit more, so I made the Neapolitan meatballs on page 320, without making the ragu that went along with them. They start with mixing up the ingredients, and getting both hands into the mix to thoroughly combine the bread crumbs, ground beef, egg, cheese and seasonings, then making large meatballs to oven bake. They have to chill for 20 minutes so they hold together in cooking, so I did these first and put them in the refrigerator while I started on the pasta.
They are baked at a high heat, 475ºF, for about 20 minutes. The parchment paper liner on the baking tray made cleanup a breeze.
Serving our plates, I added a bit of freshly grated Parmesan cheese to the top, as the recipe suggests.
Ready to eat, the dish had a marvelous aroma. My Sweet Babboo declared it a keeper.
Both recipes make enough to serve 4-6 people. We will be eating the pasta and cauliflower for at least two more meals.
The meatballs were delicious and easy to make. They will be fabulous next time with the tomato-based ragu sauce. The leftover meatballs were gone at the next meal.
Yum!! The Two-Cheese Pasta with Cauliflower recipe was featured in the Milk Street magazine in 2019, and it is also included in Tuesday Nights Mediterranean (now on sale for $23.95 in the Milk Street Store).
Download the recipe – Two-Cheese Pasta with Cauliflower
Click on Milk Street Backroads Italy: Finding Italy’s Forgotten Recipes to get your copy at Amazon at pre-order pricing. The book publishes on April 15, and will be on the Milk Street website after that.
And now, a special surprise for those reading all the way to the end!! Would you like to win a copy of this fabulous cookbook? Just leave a comment on this post and you will be entered to win! Are you a fan of Italian cooking? What is your favorite go-to Italian meal?
From My Carolina Home 
sounds delicious. I love Italian cooking. I’m always looking for meatless meals for my daughter in law eats. The two cheese pasta with cauliflower would fit the bill.
We love Italian food and have been fortunate to travel to Italy a few times. The dishes look delicious! Thanks for sharing, Carole.
I watch the show and follow your blogs and this looks like one of the recipes I will definitely try, although in smaller portions. Thanks, Carole. Carolyn
We love italian food. That cauliflower pasta sounds great. I would never had thought to put the two together. Thanks!
Your photos and words brought these recipes alive. I can’t wait to try both.
This sounds delicious! We love cauliflower but get into ruts with how we cook it (roasted most of the time 🙂 ). Every Milk Street recipe that I’ve tried from your blog has been delicious and gotten raves from my husband, lol.
Cookbook sounds intriguing and interesting. Would enjoy making the different tomato sauces.
Italian food is my favorite. I could eat pasta almost every meal but I love a good meatball also. My go-to Italian dinner is chicken parmesan with angel hair pasta and a red sauce. Using chicken cutlets makes it a quick and easy dish.
The pasta cauliflower dish looks really good. Now the meatballs, look scrumptious! Now that recipe I’d love to try. I’m not much of a cook so I never buy cookbooks. I’m more of a throw it together and see what you get kind of cook. I have the old red and white Betty Crocker cookbook that I got for a wedding present almost 48 years ago and that’s my go to book. It’s the same one my Mom used her entire life too. Thank you for the recipe. Have a great Tuesday, Carole.
My favorite food is Italian. One of the first meals that I learned to make as a newly-wed was a meatball and sauce recipe from my mother. When she mailed the requested recipe, there were many references to “a pinch” or “a taste”, but I eventually got it down. My husband’s bachelor Air Force friends liked it so much that they would show up on our steps with all the fixings in a bag (brown paper, of course; it was the early 1970’s) on the weekends. The cauliflower dish sounds terrific!
Connie W.
if afraid I would be eating this for at least a week..there are some down sides to being alone..wonder how it would freeze?
That looks yummy! One of my favorite Italian dishes is pasta Fagioli, which Girl #2 introduced us to, when she came home from Italy.
Looks good! I need some recipes to get me out of my rut of cooking the same old things.
Everyone in my house LOVES Italian food. A favorite is stromboli but who wouldn’t turn down a slab of lasagna?!! Lol. Those meatballs looks fantastic too.
I’m eating more vegetarian meals lately, and this is one I’ll definitely try. Thanks for the review and the recipe.
I love a good meatball and I like baking in the oven instead of frying.
Book sounds delightful, the cauliflower dish looks so intriguing. I remember being little & only eating cauliflower if it was covered with cheese. While cheese is no longer a requirement, cauliflower is a favorite & this looks like a fantastic new way to serve it.
The pasta and cauliflower recipe looks so yummy! I definitely need to try this recipe because I love both cauliflower and pasta. As for fav Italian food, anything without fresh tomatoes is always good for me.
you made me hungry just reading your recipe post! I would love to win a copy!
My father was born in Italy but I’ve never been there. Would love a copy of this cookbook.
That looks so delicious! I am drooling over the meatballs and pasta. I would love the recipe for the meatballs. I think I need that cookbook!
I just love a cookbook you can actually READ as well as cook from. One where you learn interesting things about the foods or the region — and then eat well along with it. So this one sounds like a gem! And the recipe looks good. Everyone will want to be the winner (me too) because who doesn’t love Italian food?!
I love Italian food. Eggplant parmesan and spaghetti are two of my favorites.
I love Italian food and am always looking for new recipes. Nothing beats a great cookbook to find them in!
Italy is amazingly diverse with its cooking. Some of my favourite recipes are from friends who lived there. I would love a copy of this book! 🙂 Thanks for the opportunity!
That looks yummy, Carole! We do love Italian food at our house and lately have been making chicken parmesan with prebreaded chicken breasts we buy at Costco. It’s very tasty!
sounds like a great cookbook. I love milk street
The cauliflower-pasta recipe sounds really good!!
yum! The cauliflower recipe sounds delicious. I plan to make it tomorrow.
I know I’m not eligible to enter your giveaway but I must say this Cauliflower recipe sounds really yum to me! Love cookbooks that you can read as well as cook from. Very often you find out about the cook and how the recipe came into being. You lucky girl receiving this lovely book. 😊
Mary :))
My favorite is pepe cici. Linguini with butter, black pepper and parmason cheese
This dish looks delicious! Italian is one of our favorites to cook! We love making carbonara and eggplant parm!
We love both pasta and cauliflower. This recipe will fit the bill for a great dinner!
I am totally hungry and totally making this one day!
I would love to win this cookbook. I have watched him on PBS for years, such a talented chef.
Cauliflower now on my grocery list to try the pasta dish. I’m going to put mine in a baking dish and cover it with buttered bread crumbs. A few minutes in the oven to brown the top will make it a pretty main dish.
This looks like an easy recipe with no special ingredients needed. I’m putting this on my menu for next week’s Meatless Monday dish.
Thanks for the chance to win the cookbook.
Oh yum! Just printed this recipe. Perfect timing to get a new Italian cookbook to learn some new recipes to prepare for our daughter and son-in-law upon their return this Fall from 3 years in Italy. We often make her homemade sauce for spaghetti and toss in zucchini at the end.
We love Italian Greens. It is steamed escarole seasoned with bread crumbs, grated cheese, prosciutto and olive oil. Utica greens are a favorite in many of the nearby Italian restaurants.
My husband follows an online Italian recipe group. He tells me that the provinces are particular on what ingredients “make” the dish…and the ingredients they remark on are many times different by province.
Bravo!
The recipes look and sound delicious-your pictures made them come alive!
That cauliflower and pasta sounds so good. My favorite Italian dish is eggplant Parmesan. I’ve never tried to make it myself but it is my go to meal when I go to an Italian restaurant.