Ash Wednesday marks the start of Lent – the 40 days of reflection leading to Easter Sunday by Christians worldwide. Roman Catholics additionally share their reverence by fasting Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, and abstaining from eating meat on all Fridays during Lent.
Time to pull out the seafood and pasta dishes for the next 7 Fridays! To help you along, I want to share a delicious meat-free pasta dish that is a childhood favorite of my husband. It’s easy. It’s healthy. It’s yummy. It’s perfect during Lent! I did share it once before as part of a weekly menu plan, so you might have read it from me before.
- 1 large head of cauliflower, cut into florets
- 1 box of pasta – penne is the favorite for this dish here!
- 3 tbsp of olive oil
- 4 cloves of garlic, minced
- ¼ cup of grated parmesan (tastes much better if this is freshly grated)
- Salt & pepper, to taste
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add cauliflower and boil until it is very tender. Use a slotted spoon to remove cauliflower and place in serving dish. Add pasta to the water and boil until desired tenderness.
In a small sauté pan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic. Sauté for a few minutes. Add to the cauliflower. Mash cauliflower using a potato masher, or fork. Add cheese and salt and pepper. When pasta is cooked, drain and add to the mashed cauliflower mixture. Stir well.
This dish seems to taste even better the next day, so be sure to save some for lunch!
looks great! had a bad experience with cauliflower and pasta, but this dish sounds amazing, i might have to put my crazy issues aside and try it one of these meatless fridays!
What happened with the cauliflower and pasta? The chili really is delicious!
haha well when i was 12 i had to spend the weekend at a relatives while my parents went to a wedding… for dinner they plopped a bowl of ravioli in front of me with this grey, goopy sauce all over it. they told me it was cauliflower. it was less than appealing and tasted awful! in my family it was bad manners not to eat, so i had to force feed myself this grey mush. to this day i still cringe when i hear the word cauliflower! its been an ongoing joke with our family but i slowly have warmed up to the veggie!