Recipe for Cauliflower with Garlic and Lemon.

I've gotten distracted recently from my quest to show you all the great recipes in Mark Bittman's wonderful book The Best Recipes in the World, but here is another one I tried recently. I thought this tasted amazing, and it also reminded me of a braised cauliflower recipe my friend Ilva featured recently, which seemed appropriate since Bittman found this recipe in Italy and Ilva is in Tuscany. Bittman offered two cooking methods, and I chose the easier one. The last few years I've been buying little specialty cooking utensils as souvenirs when I travel and for this dish I used the microplane grater I bought in San Francisco when I visited my step-sister Karyn and her family. You need a fine grater to make lemon zest, which is an essential component of the dish. This is a pretty garlic-flavored dish, which was fine with me. But if you're not sure how much you like garlic, or if you're planning a romantic evening, you might want to reduce the amount of garlic.

Cauliflower with Garlic and Lemon
(Makes about 4 servings, adapted slightly from The Best Recipes in the World)

Ingredients:
1 head cauliflower, trimmed and cut into bite-sized pieces
3-4 T extra virgin olive oil
1 T minced garlic (or less)
zest and juice of 1 lemon
salt and coarse ground pepper to taste

Instructions:

Fill medium sized pot with water, add salt, and bring to a boil. Add cut-up cauliflower and cook 4-5 minutes, until barely tender-crisp. Drain well and rinse with very cold water, then drain again.

In very large frying pan, heat 2 T olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic and saute 1-2 minutes, until barely starting to turn golden. (Be careful not to burn it.)

Turn heat to high and add cauliflower. Saute, turning as little as possible, until cauliflower is starting to get well browned. (I cooked it about 5 minutes, but my burners are very high, thanks to Biggles teaching me how to adjust them.) When cauliflower is well-browned, add lemon zest and cook about 2 minutes more. (At this point I added about 1 T more olive oil.)

Add remaining tablespoon olive oil and lemon juice , stir and turn off heat. Taste for salt/pepper and add as desired. Serve hot or at room temperature.

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South Beach Suggestions:

This dish would be approved for all phases of the South Beach Diet and would be tasty with something like Almond and Parmesan Baked Tilapia or Parmesan Chicken. If you're on phase two, or not on a diet at all, continue the lemon theme by serving it with Georgette's Really Lemony Greek Pilafi.