Pasta with Roasted Cauliflower, Spinach, and Prosciutto

On Saturday the weather was perfect, and John and I went on a super long walk with Sam and then a quick 2 mile run. Then we went to an Oysterfest party at Jill's house during the day (sunshine, beer, and New Orleans cooking by Jill=awesome way to spend a Saturday).

Saturday night my aunt and uncle from Michigan came to visit after spending 3 months in Vero Beach, Florida. We had a drink before we all went to Valenza (one of our favorite Italian restaurants in our neighborhood) for dinner. My aunt, Diantha (otherwise known as Auntie Tha!) brought me a cookbook from their stay in Florida - "Cooking with the Garden Club of Indian River County" - a collaboration of local recipes submitted by members of the garden club. I always love cookbooks where people submit recipes because as my mom always says, if someone's going to put their name on a recipe, you know it's good!

I thumbed through the cookbook on Sunday and found a recipe for pasta tossed with cauliflower, roasted tomatoes, spinach, Parmesan cheese, and prosciutto and thought it sounded like a nice change from our usual "kitchen sink" pasta. I make pasta so much I rarely ever follow a recipe, but find that when I do, I'm always pleasantly surprised by the tasty flavor combos that are new to me! This recipe was no exception. Roasted cauliflower has such a nice flavor (I rarely buy cauliflower for some reason but plan to now) and the little bit of prosciutto was a really major addition to the dish! (John was sooo happy to see that I had bought prosciutto this week - he's so used to me coming home with fish and chicken only).

This was a really easy weeknight meal that tasted soooo good. Get the ingredients and make it next week! Seriously!

Pasta with Roasted Cauliflower, Spinach, and Prosciutto

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 bag of cauliflower florets

1 pint of grape tomatoes

3 tablespoons olive oil

9 large basil leaves

4 cloves garlic

3 thin slices Prosciutto

12 oz bow tie or other small pasta

5 oz baby spinach/arugula blend

3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Toss the cauliflower, tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, 3/4 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper (I just eyeballed) on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. Roast for 20 minutes.

Place the prosciutto slices on another baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake along with the veggies, until crispy. You might want to check on this a few times - mine took about 17 minutes. When you remove it from the oven, let it sit for a few minutes and then chop into fine pieces.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook the pasta according to package directions. Drain pasta when done, and mix with about half a cup of the pasta water, roasted veggies, spinach/arugula blend, parmesan cheese, basil, and prosciutto. Season to taste with salt and pepper.