Cauliflower With Anchovies and Crushed Olives Recipe (2024)

We LOVED this. Cauliflower and lemon and anchovies and garlic are regular staples in our house; we literally only needed to buy the fresh cauliflower to make this for dinner tonight. We tossed this with hot cavatelli pasta and topped with a generous amount of grated parm. Yes yes yes.

I'm a little late to the Alison Roman party, but better late than never. This is my first, but not my last, foray into her recipes. My only deviation from the instructions was to toss anchovy oil and cauliflower and then roast it all up on a sheet pan. It was amazingly easy and way more delicious than a recipe this simple has any right to be! (PS) As someone else suggested, next time I may try a few flakes or red pepper.

I made this with 1 big (3-pound) head of “cheddar” cauliflower (orange in color). I used 16 olives, 1 whole small preserved lemon, increased the amount of olive oil (in light of the greater cauliflower volume) and skipped the fresh marjoram/oregano and the vinegar. delicious!

Utterly delicious and crave-worthy! Roasted all of the cauliflower in the anchovy oil in 450 oven for 20 mins, adding olives and marjoram for last 7 mins. The preserved lemon and 1/2 chili from the jar added a nice touch of "yum - what is that?" while the olives provided a nice touch of saltiness (Les Moulins Mahjoub organic lemon/Catelvetrano olive). The recipe is well balanced and the 1 T of vinegar is perfect. Huge hit at Xmas dinner - we all kept going back for more!

One of my friends' favorites and mine as well. Included in my rotation

I didn’t have preserved lemons. I used Meyer lemon zest and capers. It was delicious

Really delicious. Simple ingredients with big impacts. Easy to put together.

I had high expectations given all the positive reviews but this just didn’t do it for me. I definitely regret the preserved lemons as it gave the whole dish a “cleaning supply” smell.

This was delicious. I added extra preserved lemon as another reviewer suggested, but should have been more cautious with adding salt in earlier steps given that. Pan roasting made the sardines almost totally turn to mush; next time I’ll try the oven as others suggested.

Delicious. I would recommend sautéing all the cauliflower.

I prepared this dish on a late January weeknight. Plated it with simple steamed kasha (buckwheat groats). Dang good. So earthy in contrast to the tonic flavor spectrum of the cauliflower dish. In the repertory now!

Loved this. I didn't have olives sub. capers ~1/4c. and chopped raw walnuts and hazelnuts, used some lemoncello for the fermented lemon and added stringbeans too. Also used about 1/2 oil. no scallions. Boy, this recipe is forgiving!

The good folks at Rancho Gordo suggest doing this but adding cannellini beans (or their special Marcella beans). Completely delicious. I'd double most of the other ingredients and add to freshly cooked beans.

Is it good made the day before? Would you re-heat it? Would it be good at room temperature? Thanks all!

Since they were no anchovies in the house, I substituted sardines and added a little bit of Worcestershire sauce. This dish came out incredibly well. Or added protein I also threw in some marinated and oven fried tofu. We ate this over a bed of bibb lettuce torn into small pieces which was a great contrast with the cauliflower

As others suggested, I just roasted all the florets, and served atop rigatoni. It was great!

Cooked anchovies and olive oil, added all cauliflower and pepper in the pan to cook for awhile; added smashed olives, some fresh oregano and homegrown Meyer lemon sliced thin with lemon juice from slicing to deglaze. Cooked some more until lemon and olives were warm and glazed. Topped with Italian parsley and a little oregano when served up. Will keep this one.

I’m glad I took the advice of other readers and just roasted the cauliflower florets on a sheet pan first. After they had some nice brown spots, I added anchovies, oregano, and capers (out of green olives) to the sheet pan and put it back in the oven. I followed the last step and added the roasted mixture to the herbs and lemon juice. It was delicious.

I added minced garlic to the anchovies and used about 2 TB pureed preserved lemon. Didn't have fresh oregano so used parsley and finely chopped carrot greens. Served with seared scallops - tasty! Next time I'll add crushed red pepper. Maybe add some chopped red bell pepper for color.