Cooking
And char your eggplant, steam your blue crabs and stir-fry your potatoes.
Good morning. The beefsteak tomatoes outperformed the heirloom varieties for me this summer, and the corn from the place nearer the ocean was sweeter than the up-island ears. I’ve been eating both three times a week for a couple of months now. It’s been a great season. I could probably eat tomatoes and corn forever.
But I won’t. Soon enough, the tomatoes will turn from blood-red excellence into blandness. The corn will go starchy. Disappointment looms. And that’s fine. Comes now cauliflower, and the promise of fall. I’m excited to mark its arrival.
I like cauliflower as shawarma, with a spicy tahini alongside. I like it in adobo. Also, charred in stew. It’s excellent blackened. And it’s very, very good as a substitute for wings in the Buffalo tradition.
But what I’m most looking forward to this weekend is cauliflower parm (above). Melissa Clark’s recipe cloaks fried florets in marinara sauce and melted mozzarella under a shower of Parmesan. You could serve that as is, with spaghetti or a salad, but I like it best piled into a toasted hero roll for a sub of distinction, a dinner that resembles lunch at the Italian spot near the docks, the sort of sandwich you’d ordinarily eat standing by the hood of your car. Serve that sandwich on china at the dinner table, with the lights turned low and candles flickering, and you’ve achieved a kind of magic: Not Your Usual Saturday Night Meal.
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Cauliflower Parmesan
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