Cauliflower & Anchovy Timbale

My grandfather, Carl Trubio, AKA Poppie, was a first generation Italian born and raised in Rochester, New York (located in upstate New York). I proudly inherited his hair, his love for hot peppers, his passion for anchovies (particularly on pizza), his obstinance and his dedication to honoring and maintaining his Italian food heritage. I, however, did not inherit his gift of welding and craftsmanship for which he was remarkable.

While I’ve always been curious, proud and honored by my Italian roots recently I’ve started to deep dive into my heritage particularly around the lifeblood of Italy, food.

I have the basics down when it comes to cooking Italian food - I can make a sauce in under 10 minutes; I can pan sear and then slow cook meatballs in my sleep; I can make my mother’s cheesecake recipe blindfolded and I can whip up a batch of eggplant parmesan simply by memory.

I’ve been cooking these Italian staples for years. They are the foods I grew up eating and watching my mother cook every week in her kitchen.

Recently, I’ve been learning how to cook traditional Italian recipes by reading old school Italian cookbooks dating as far back as the 1800’s…Some of the authors and cooks aren’t the best teachers and can come across as a bit, well, unforgiving, especially when it comes to Italian food basics.

Let me digress with a quote from the most popular Italian cookbook, published in 1891, Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well by Pellegrino Artusi.

Regarding meatballs, Artusi says…

Do not think for a moment that I would be so pretentious as to tell you how to make meatballs. This is a dish that everybody knows how to make, beginning with the jackass.

While this cookbook is a bit hard to follow as none of the recipes provide measurements only the ingredients and a brief description as to how to make each dish, I happen to appreciate and love Artusi’s humor and bedside manor not to mention his 700+ authentic Italian recipes discussed throughout the book.

Today, when I read book’s like Artusi’s or watch a chef or a matriarch or a young, inspired cook in Italy prepare Italian cuisine, I realize that there’s an untouched world of Italian food that sadly didn’t make it past Ellis Island.

And, if it did, so many of the authentic and traditional Italian dishes got washed away by the American-work-driven-wayside or became a distant memory once newly migrated Italians came face-to-face with the harsh New York winters wrought with ice, snow and bitter cold wind chills known to fall well below freezing.

I can say from firsthand experience that when you’re faced with winter to such a numbing degree (literally), the only thing you can do is pray for it to end and for the sun to return.

As I learn more and more about traditional Italian food I realize that there are so many Italian dishes yet to be discovered, explored and revived in the American kitchen.

I am going to remedy this in my kitchen and for those of you as enamored by Italian food as I, I invite you to do the same in your kitchen as well.

For the past several weeks, I’ve been making traditional Italian dishes. In fact, I’ve been making them practically every night. My wife has yet to complain and has only asked why I didn’t start this exploration much sooner.

A few of the traditional Italian dishes I’ve cooked over the past two weeks include:

Tomato sauce with fennel and anchovies; tuna with homemade mayo, capers and olives; chicken marsala, artichoke and pecorino cream and various different timbale recipes.

Today, I’m going to share my favorite timbale recipe with you.

It’s a rich, delicious and authentic Italian vegetable dish straight from Sicily (Sicilian food often contains anchovies!) teeming with nutrients and flavor that I guarantee will be irresistible to anyone’s palate it comes across.

Timbale quite literally means, deep dish. Classically, timbale contains a combination of meat, veggies, cheese, bread crumbs and flour. It’s a dish American’s would refer to as a casserole. For the sake of my gut (and maybe yours) I have omitted wheat in this recipe and have created a grain-free version.

I hope you enjoy this traditional Sicilian staple and PS don’t for one second think that the anchovies will make this dish taste too fishy. They don’t. Rather, they offer one of the most delectable umami flavors that your tastebuds may have ever experienced. You’re welcome.

CAULIFLOWER & ANCHOVY TIMBALE

1 medium-size head cauliflower, chopped
2 tsp grated nutmeg
1 cup cream
4-6 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp lemon juice
Thick slice of an onion
2 Tbsp EVOO
1 Tbsp marjoram
1 Tbsp Italian flat leaf parsley, chopped
2 Tbsp whole anchovies, diced
3/4 cup onion, diced
1 1/4 cups combination of Pecorino (I recommend using a softer Pecorino) and Asiago, grated
Fresh ground black pepper
Sea salt to taste

DIRECTIONS
Preheat your oven to 350°F.

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil (add at least 1 tablespoon of sea salt and bring to a boil).

Add the lemon juice, thickly sliced onion and cauliflower. Stir. Cook on medium heat for about 10 minutes.

While the cauliflower is cooking, in a saucepan add the cream, anchovies, nutmeg, 3 tablespoons of butter and 1 cup of cheese (combined asiago and soft pecorino) as well as a few pinches of salt and pepper. Cook on medium heat stirring fairly constantly. Make sure to mash the anchovies as you stir.

Once the cheese is incorporated into the cream, turn off the burner. Taste to see if more salt is needed.

Strain the cauliflower and remove the onion.

Place the cauliflower in a skillet with the remaining butter, diced onion, salt and pepper to taste. After a couple minutes, add the marjoram. Cook for another 2-3 minutes making sure to lightly mash the cauliflower after adding the marjoram. Once done, turn off heat and stir in the olive oil and parsley.

Transfer the cauliflower to a butter-greased Pyrex baking dish and pour the cream mixture on top. Stir around the liquid to incorporate with the cauliflower and gently mash the cauliflower a bit more. Try to submerge as much of the cauliflower as you can in the cream.

Top with the remaining cheese and bake for 20-25 minutes.

This timbale goes well with chicken, white wine, sparkling wine or a lemon spritzer.

Make sure to play Heathar’s Italiano Cooklist while making this dish or any of your favorite traditional Italian dishes.

~Heathar

While Heathar is a chef and homesteader, she’s also a homeopathic practitioner. You can read about Heathar’s homeopathic practice and her Practitioner Training program, on her Study Homeopathy Substack.

If you’re interested in learning about Heathar’s farm, you can learn more, right here.