North Italian restaurant is one of our regular places… This winter they put Grilled Cauliflower on the menu. An instant favorite! Already interesting visually, adding different colors of Cauliflower we thought would be nice because it was in season
Our dish at North Italia.
It seemed fairly simple after we asked out waiter how it was prepared. Well, not exactly so simple!
It took us 3 times trying to figure out how to reproduce the flavors of grilling; slight citrus and light cream with Pancetta. We don’t have a wood burning oven either, so this recipe improvises a little.
Of course we had to photograph the dish without the egg as well... The colors we're amazing!
Ingredients for the Pancetta cream
1 tbsp (15 mL) butter
1 tbsp (15 ) finely chopped garlic
1 tbsp (15 mL) finely chopped shallots
3 oz (90 g) pancetta, diced
2 tbsp (30 mL) white wine
1 cup (250 mL) 35 % cream
Ingredients to marinate the Cauliflower
Juice of 2 lemons
4 or 5 cloves garlic, cut into very thin slivers
1/2 c. olive oil
1/2 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. salt
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 tbsp. finely grated lemon zest (yellow part only - opt.)
Trim the cauliflower, breaking off the buds. You may also peel the stems and cut them into 1" sections. Put in a pan with salted water to cover. Also cut the Asparagus into 2 inch sections and put to the side. Put the Cauliflower in the marinade for about two hours.
In a pan sizzle up a bit of Pancetta and set aside. Remove the Cauliflower from the marinade and heat in the same hot pan with a little olive oil and the remains Pancetta oil for about 5 minutes, then add the asparagus for about 3 minutes so as not to overcook . While this is being done put the small cast iron dish on a burner on low and when the veggies are ready, pour into the hot cast Iron dish and add the crispy Pancetta. (Put a fried egg on if you wish!) Drizzle a bit of the Pancetta cream, shred some Parmesan and crispy bread crumbs on there and your done! Careful, it's hot!