This cozy cauliflower casserole is filled with fluffy gnocchi pasta pillows and parmesan cheese and is super easy to make. double win!
If you’re like us, you are obsessed with cauliflower. The internet and cookbooks are full of delicious recipes like buffalo cauliflower wings and cauliflower risotto. Apparently, Cauliflower is cool. This cauliflower casserole is a recipe from the loveliest new cookbook, Mediterranean forest festival, and my goodness makes this humble vegetable tastier than ever. And this book: well, it’s one of our favorite books of the year.
Another top gnocchi recipe? Try our tomato basil gnocchi.
About the book: The Festival of the Mediterranean Forest
The Forest Feast: Mediterranean is the latest in a series of cookbooks by our dear friend Erin Gleeson of The Forest Feast. Erin moved into a cabin in the woods and began creating vegetarian recipes and painting recipe layouts. It was so unique and gorgeous people on the internet took notice, leading to his first book, The Forest Feast. Now she’s back with another book and it really is a stunning masterpiece. The Forest Festival: the Mediterranean chronicle of a journey Erin took with her two young children through Europe! You may recall that around the same time Alex and I took Larson on a much shorter dream trip to Italy, Croatia and Spain. Erin, capturing this region we love so much, makes this book very personal for us too.
The book contains 100 vegetarian recipes and lush illustrations that transport you to this beautiful part of the world. Whether it’s this cauliflower casserole from Italy or patatas bravas from Spain, the artwork has such a sense of place that we feel like we could save a lot of money. Money for plane tickets just by cooking from this book. It is a fantastic coffee table book and at the same time a practical cookbook for fresh Mediterranean and vegetarian recipes.
Get the book: Forest Feast: Mediterranean
PS If you love travel and food, check out our travel page for more inspiration. And if you’re considering adventures with toddlers, check out our Traveling With Toddlers: A Survival Guide page.
Why Make This Cauliflower Casserole?
This cheesy cauliflower casserole is cozy and flavorful with parmesan cheese. The best part? Pillows of fluffy gnocchi are thrown in with the cauliflower for a surprising mix of filling bites.
Gnocchi are pasta, which are soft balls of dough usually made with potatoes and flour. You can find wrapped gnocchi and MAN alongside pasta at most grocery stores, how good they are. We make gnocchi a lot: our Romesco gnocchi or our light creamy gnocchi make a quick dinner, and our baked gnocchi are a fall crowd-pleaser. It’s also great in soups: our Italian gnocchi soup and tomato basil gnocchi soup are our favourites.
Tips for this cauliflower casserole
Before moving on to the recipe below (because we recommend it!), a few notes to keep in mind about this cauliflower casserole:
- It’s light and soothing, not heavy and cheesy. When we saw “Cauliflower Cassolette” in Erin’s book, we imagined it would be super gooey and heavy, like macaroni and cheese. But after we did it, it surprised us: it was much easier than we expected! Parmesan cheese isn’t a sticky sauce, it’s an all-over flavor. It was different from what we initially thought, but very satisfying!
- Portions are moderate when served as a main course. If you are vegetarian and want to eat it as a main course, we worked that out easily between Alex, my sister and I and had room to spare. So be sure to serve it with several side dishes. Or double the recipe! You can also serve it as a side dish, then it easily makes 4 servings.
- It’s a crowd puller! Our 2 year old saw this and yelled “Mac and Cheese!” He started eating the cauliflower like it was pasta. Because the pasta and cauliflower are white, there’s a hint of macaroni and cheese.
How to cut cauliflower into florets
Do you know the best way to cut cauliflower? Alex and I use an ingenious method of slicing cauliflower that doesn’t end up with crumbs on the counter! (Anyone have this problem?) We use this method all the time, like when making our crispy cauliflower tacos or our favorite buffalo cauliflower. Using this method was truly a game changer for us, and we hope it will be the same for you! Above is a short video of me chopping cauliflower in our kitchen to show you how!
This cauliflower casserole recipe is…
Vegetarian. For gluten-free gnocchi, use gluten-free gnocchi.
The description
This cozy cauliflower casserole is filled with fluffy gnocchi pasta pillows and parmesan cheese and is super easy to make.
- 1 Medium head cauliflower
- 17an ounce pack of gnocchi
- 1 cup Grated parmesan
- 2 tablespoons Salted butter
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- Kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Cut the cauliflower into florets.
- Cook the cauliflower in a large pot of water for 3 minutes, then add the gnocchi. Cook an additional 2 minutes or until the gnocchi are floating, then turn off the heat and strain.
- Return the cauliflower and gnocchi to the saucepan and add ¾ cup parmesan, along with butter, olive oil, some black peppercorns, and a few pinches of kosher salt until flavor comes through.
- Spread the mixture in an 8 x 8 inch pan. Sprinkle the remaining ¼ cup Parmesan on top, along with a little more salt and pepper.
- Cook for 3 minutes until the top is golden brown.
- Category: main course
- Method: Cooked
- Kitchen: Italian
Keywords: Cauliflower Casserole, Gnocchi Casserole, Vegetarian Casserole
