Food and Wine Bucatini with Cauliflower and Brussels Sprouts

Pasta makes frequent appearances in my menu plans. Normally every week I make at least one pasta dish, sometimes more. There are many reasons why pasta is one of my favorite foods, but the two biggest are that my kids will eat it, and it re-heats well for lunches. With me staying at home and my family of four living on one income it is essential that the meals that I prepare make multiple meals, and don't cost a fortune to make. If you read this blog regularly, you would have noticed that up until about three months ago I wrote reviews on recipes from Food and Winemagazine and then suddenly they stopped. The short story is that I completely forgot to renew my subscription and only remembered last month. That's what happens when you have  a two and a five-year-old and try to cook from scratch all the time, something has to go and apparently for me it's my memory. I received the November issue of Food and Wine magazine last month and I was pleased to see a recipe for Bucatini with Cauliflower and Brussels Sprouts, which looked easy and full of vegetables.

This recipe has 14 ingredients. It makes 4 servings and takes approximately 40 minutes of prep and cooking time. I made a few modifications to ingredients due to local availability. I was unable to find bucatini, so I used perciatelli instead. Secondly, I used a sweet onion since they were still in season and I prefer the taste in recipes. I had to go to multiple stores to find fresh Brussels sprouts and the ones that I was finally able to purchase were very large, so I quarted them. Finally, my Brussels sprouts took longer to cook completely than the recipe suggested, probably approximately five minutes. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

I loved how easy this recipe was to put together and the large amount of vegetables. The anchovies gave a nice umami compliment to the flavors without being overpowering. My husband took the leftovers for lunch and thought that the taste was even better the next day. The recipe states that it makes four servings, but with 12 ounces of pasta it made more than enough for my family of four and a bunch of leftovers. Overall, a delicious pasta dish, full of vegetables and kid friendly. 

For the recipe go to Bucatini with Cauliflower and Brussels Sprouts.