By MLK Day off school, which meant a Monday with the twins and no agenda, which is a parenting situation that always sounds better than it is. We went to the library. We went to the donut shop on Pulaski. We went home and the twins refused to nap and I texted Ryan at the firehouse that I was failing and he sent back a photo of the firehouse dog wearing a paper crown and somehow that helped.
I made a big pan of baked ziti for the week — a pound of cheap pasta, a jar of Aldi marinara, half a jar of vodka sauce I had hanging around, a pound of ground turkey browned with garlic, a layer of ricotta in the middle, mozzarella on top. Forty-five minutes in the oven. Feeds us four nights with leftovers for Ryan's lunch. Nora ate it three nights in a row without complaint, which from Nora is essentially a five-star Yelp review.
Mrs. Papalardo came over Saturday afternoon. She does this once a month or so — she walks the four blocks from her house, knocks on the apartment door, holds out a tin of something, comes in for forty-five minutes, leaves. This time it was Christmas cookies, a month late, which was very Mrs. Papalardo. She held Nora on her lap and called her "Jess's little goddaughter" even though Nora is not Jess's goddaughter and Jess never met Nora and Jess died nine years and four months ago. I didn't correct her. I never correct her. I made coffee and we sat on the couch and watched Owen build a Lego thing on the rug, and Mrs. Papalardo said "she would have loved them," and I said "I know," and she ate two cookies and went home.
The blog post this week was the baked ziti. I called it "the pan that gets you through the week." It got shared in a Facebook group I've never heard of and I gained two hundred subscribers overnight. Patty called to ask what subscribers were. I tried to explain. She said "okay, sweetheart, that's lovely," in the tone she uses when she has stopped listening but doesn't want me to know.
The ziti was already in the oven and I had forty-five minutes and a head of cauliflower in the crisper drawer that had been quietly judging me since the previous Thursday — so this got made too, slid onto a sheet pan on the rack below, no additional effort required. Mrs. Papalardo’s late Christmas cookies got me thinking about the way holiday things linger past their season and still feel right, and a Christmas Cauliflower, it turns out, is just as good in January as it is in December. Some things don’t need to be on time to be worth having.
Christmas Cauliflower
Prep Time: 10 min | Cook Time: 35 min | Total Time: 45 min | Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 1 large head cauliflower, cut into florets
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 cup roasted red peppers, drained and sliced
- 1/4 cup sliced black or green olives
- 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Preheat. Heat oven to 425°F. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with foil or parchment.
- Season the florets. In a large bowl, toss the cauliflower florets with olive oil, garlic powder, smoked paprika, salt, and pepper until evenly coated.
- Roast. Spread florets in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet. Roast for 25–30 minutes, flipping once halfway through, until edges are golden and caramelized.
- Add the color. Remove from oven and scatter roasted red peppers and olives over the top. Return to oven for 5 minutes to warm through.
- Finish and serve. Transfer to a serving dish. Sprinkle with Parmesan and fresh parsley. Serve warm directly from the pan.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 165 | Protein: 5g | Fat: 11g | Carbs: 12g | Fiber: 4g | Sodium: 390mg