Cauliflower ziti with sausage and chorizo

Last year we went to visit friends in Missouri, USA and although we ate a lot of amazing food while out and about, my absolute favourite meal of the week was home cooked. It was a healthier take on ziti, which traditionally is a pasta dish. This meal featured cauliflower instead of pasta. Our host had however adapted the original recipe and used Italian sausage rather than beef mince. It was such a stunningly tasty dish that I stuffed myself silly and couldn't move afterwards. 

In my defence, I had eaten two platefuls of cauliflower, which was very healthy. Never mind that the cauliflower came with sausage and lashings of cheese, three different kinds of cheese... La la la la, not listening to the less-healthy-talk. It was lush enough to cause a food coma and that's all that matters.

This is one of those great dishes that you can adapt to your taste, as long as you like cheese. It needs cheese. In fact, ziti depends on it. What I mean is that you can swap and change the meat as you please. The original recipe suggests been mince, but you can of course use any mince you fancy. Should pieces of chicken float your boat, go for it. I like a mixture of spicy sausage and chorizo, the sliced sandwich kind of chorizo. I have tried cubing normal chorizo, but I much prefer the sandwich version. My advice is to try different varieties until you discover your ultimate ziti.

Below I have posted a photo of my handwritten recipe and I hope you can read it. If not, I will take care to mention the amount of ingredients I'm using alongside the photos.

The recipe mentions a pinch of chilli flakes. I suggest considering this when choosing your meat. If using pain meat, add extra chilli, but if using spicy sausage or hot chorizo, reduce the amount of chilli. I doubled up this time and blew my head off. Still a beautiful meal, but sweatingly hot.

What's missing? Oregano! Why? Because I forgot to write it in the recipe above. You need everything in this photo, plus oregano. I used two onions instead of one, because they were quite small. Instead of measuring the cheese, I used the entire bag of grated mozzarella, the whole tub of ricotta and I grated the tip of the parmesan wedge, down to the Asda mark on the packet and 2 tbsp of the tomato puree. 

As you can see, I used sandwich chorizo. The sleeve broke and fell off the sausage packet, failing to display the name, Asda's three chilli sausages. Should you want to, the cauliflower can be swapped for pasta, as the original ziti features. I have tried and it is lovely, but less healthy.

1. Chop the cauliflower head into bite-sized pieces.

2. Boil the cauliflower (or pasta) until very nearly done. Don't over cook, as the florets will turn to mash when mixing them with the sausages later. Don't under cook either, because it will take forever to finish off the dish in the oven. You want them cauliflower tender with a slight bite left in it.

3. Chop the onion and garlic.

4. While softening the onion in a little oil in a frying pan, chop your choice of meat. 

5. Once the onion has softened, add the garlic and the meat that takes the longest to cook. Cook until nearly done.

6. Chop the chorizo, if you are using it.

7. Add the chorizo to the sausage and onion mix. Cook for a minute.

8. Now the seasoning combo is intact. 

9. Add all seasoning: salt, pepper, 2 tbsp tomato puree, 1 tbsp each of dried basil and oregano. The recipe says to add the basil later, but I tend to forget and prefer to add it at this stage. It won't make a difference if you do it now or later, as long as you add it.

10. After mixing the seasoning well, add a tin of chopped tomatoes and stir. Leave to cook for 10-15 minutes on medium heat, until the sausages are completely done and the tomato sauce has thickened somewhat. Take care not to let it get too thick and dry.

11. By now the cauliflower should be cooked. Drain it and put it back into the saucepan.

12. Very carefully mix the cauliflower with the sausage mixture in the saucepan.

13. In an ovenproof dish, spread out half of the sausage and cauliflower mixture.

14. Add half of each of the three cheeses.

15. Cover with the rest of the sausage and cauliflower mixture.

16. Finish off with the rest of the three cheeses. I prefer to add the grated mozzarella last. Pop the dish into the oven until the cheese has melted and it looks good enough to eat, approximately 10 minutes. If you have filled the dish to the edge, place it on a baking tray, just in case.

17. Clear up the kitchen. I practice what I preach and wash as I go while cooking. If at all possible, I would like a clean sink and draining board by the time the food is ready to eat.

18. Gaze upon this beautiful ziti, soon to be in your belly. Smell it, feel it, fill up your senses.

19. Dish up and devour.

I love, love, love this meal and I'm forever grateful to our friends to cooked it while we were on holiday across the pond. Although it is healthier with cauliflower than with pasta, I still have to watch myself when dishing up, or I'll end up in a food coma again and that's not the best idea ever.