On what I thought was going to be a very boring evening in my kitchen, I found inspiration from a meal that I devoured in November - and suddenly, this was a meal to remember. When I was visiting New York in November, @julesbakshi brought me to Vinegar Hill House and we delighted in a night of Negronis, pasta and chocolate cake. Though I can’t remember the exactly what was in it, I remembered pasta with cauliflower, olives, golden raisins and broccoli stems. As I looked at my pretty scarce kitchen, I realized I could recreate this….ish….from pretty much the last of many little bits in my freezer, fridge and pantry.

FOR THE PASTA (remember I measure with my heart)

Garlic • 4 cloves minced

Leek • 1/2 leek, chopped

Cauliflower • the whole damn thing, including leaves

Green Olives • chopped

Raisins • keep those babies as is

EVOO

Butter

Lemon (I used juice of 1/2)

Salt + red pepper

Splash of vinegar to deglaze

Optional panko breadcrumbs

Boil entire head of cauliflower for roughly 9-10 minutes depending on size, until softened. Once cooled, chop into smaller pieces so you get a bit in each bite. Sauté garlic and leeks in EVOO + butter, once softened add cauliflower + leaves and cook until slightly browned. At this point, I deglazed with a bit of @tartvinegar and finished off that bottle! Add chopped olives (finished the bottle) raisins and optional toasted breadcrumbs (finished that container, too). Once the pasta had cooked, I threw it into the veggies with some of the pasta water, more EVOO, lemon juice, salt and red pepper.

FOR THE CHICKEN

I took these chicken breasts out of my freezer this morning and simply coated with EVOO, salt, pepper, oregano and seared on both sides. Top with lemon slices and put into 350 oven until internal temp of 165.