Purple Cauliflower

I’m a sucker for unusual produce. To regular NYGEW readers this is no surprise. Talk about impulse buying: If I spot something I’ve never seen, I buy it. Usually I don’t have a clue what I’m going to do with it. All I know is that I have to have it.

Curiously I’ve been stumbling on unusual purple vegetables. This time it was purple cauliflower, packaged under the Foxy brand. The company touts it as high in antioxidants and attributes the color to anthocyanins, also found in red wine and red cabbage.

I love regular cauliflower. I used to drive my family crazy because I ate it so much. The smell of boiling cauliflower, I admit, is not pleasant, and my father was particularly loath to suffer through it as frequently as he had to. I recall my mother encouraging me to cook a lot of it at once, when my father would be out of the house for a while.

Today, in the sanctuary of my own kitchen, I wanted to cook the purple kind with ingredients that could stand up to it not only in taste but also in visual impact. On an impulse I took out Marcella’s Italian Kitchen, a cookbook Italian goddess Marcella Hazan published in 1986. I checked the index for cauliflower and spotted a recipe preparing it with raisins and pine nuts. Before I even flipped to the recipe I had a vision of purple cauliflower florets sprinkled with gemlike golden raisins. Checking my pantry I was thrilled to find I had them. The pignoli I was less worried about; for me, they're a staple.

I have to note that Marcella’s recipe calls for white cauliflower and does not specify the type of raisin. But, to her credit, the recipe turned out beautifully with the fuchsia vegetable and the honey-colored raisins.

One more thing: I read some online complaints that the color bleeds from purple cauliflower when boiled. Marcella's recipe calls for parboiling the head (it finishes in a pan with olive oil.) When I did this, the water indeed turned an unnatural color – as if I’d been washing paint brushes in it. Yet as much as it bled, the vegetable still retained its vibrant hue.

   

Cavalfiore con l’Uvetta e I Pignoli
Cauliflower with Raisins and Pine Nuts, by Marcella Hazan

For 4 to 6 persons.

• 1 oz seedless raisins
• 1 young head cauliflower, about 1 ½ lbs
• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tsp garlic, chopped fine
• 1 oz pine nuts
• salt
• black pepper in a grinder
• 2 Tbsp parsley

Soak the raisins in water for 15 to 20 minutes.

Trim the cauliflower of all its outer leaves except for the tender, almost totally white ones. [When I flipped over the purple head and plucked away the tough green leaves I was dazzled to find the young ones also had a lovely purple hue.] Drop the head into 4 quarts of boiling water. After the water returns to a boil, cook for 6 to 7 minutes until it is halfway done, that is, until you feel resistance when pricking it with a fork. Drain it and cut it into 1 ½-inch pieces.

When the raisins have finished soaking, drain them and squeeze them gently in your hands to force off excess liquid.

Choose a lidded saute pan that can subsequently accommodate all the cauliflower pieces without overlapping. Put in the oil and the garlic and turn on the heat to medium without covering the pan.

When the garlic becomes colored a pale gold, add the cauliflower, raisins, pine nuts, salt, generous grindings of pepper, cover the pan, and turn down the heat to low. Cook for 8 to 10 minutes or more, stirring from time to time, until the cauliflower feels tender when tested with a fork. Sprinkle on the chopped parsley and serve hot. [I didn’t have parsley on hand, and frankly I didn’t miss it.]

Comments

[Philly]

Purple Cauliflower...yellow raisins...very interesting...

cant wait for the green carrots...

[Dionusis]

There is also purple potatoes... but that just looks too weird!!

[NICOLE COTRONEO]

Agreed, D! Purple-hued veggies take some getting used to. I think it looks like I spilled my finger paints all over the cauliflower. Um, not that I have finger paints or anything... er....

[jeff]

Looks like a feast fit for an alien. (from another planet! not country.)

[Webster]

Just found your blog as I was munching my first ever purple cauliflower. Good stuff.

Thanks for the recipe!

[Sue Hollows]

I enjoyed reading your post on purple cauliflower. I have enjoyed eating this wonderful vegetable while living in Sicily, but have not seen it here in georgia. When I steamed it, it turned green, and was oh-so-sweet. I'm going to try your recipe with white cauliflower! Thanks!

[Christie]

I also recently discovered purple cauliflower! I microwave-steamed mine and finished with a drizzle of lemon brown butter, but just read that anything involving much water or steam diminishes all the good antioxidant value that the purple brings to the table. A friend suggested roasting (in a pan with some olive oil or in the oven), so that's what I'll try next. Happy cooking! : )