Pasta Shells with Cauliflower...with some additions

Tonite we made a tasty dish of Pasta Shells with Cauliflower...with some additions.  I found the recipe at Williams-Sonoma, and we already have a lot few of their cookbooks and love them.  So when the Williams-Sonoma Back-to-School catalog came the other day with lots of tasty looking food but NO recipes I went on a rampage to figure out how to make the tastiness.  Needless, to say they read my mind and on the last page of the catalog, it said "recipes can be found in the recipe section online".  Yea! I totally forget to look at their site for recipes, and I always find myself using http://foodnetwork.com/ (which is good too don't get me wrong.) Anyways, enough babbling and on to the food!

"The cauliflower can be cooked in advance and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. It’s a good idea to save the cooking water, too, as it will add flavor to the dish. Boil the pasta in the reserved cauliflower water when you are ready to complete this recipe.
Ingredients:

•  Tbs. salt
• 1 cauliflower, cut into florets, then coarsely chopped
• 8 Tbs. olive oil
• 4 large garlic cloves, minced
• 6 to 8 green onions, white and tender green parts, thinly sliced
• 2 tsp. minced fresh marjoram  oregano
• 1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
• 3 Tbs. minced fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
• 3/4 lb. conchigliette or other small pasta shells
• 1/4 cup fresh bread crumbs panko
• WE ADDED (b/c we're meat-a-saurs):
• (4 slices of bacon -trim fat, cut in small pieces)
• (1/4 cup Fontina cheese, finely grated)

Directions:

Cook the cauliflower
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the salt and cauliflower to the boiling water and cook until tender, about 7 minutes. Using a skimmer or slotted spoon, transfer the cauliflower to a colander to drain; set aside. Return the water to a boil.

In a small fry pan over medium heat, cook bacon.  Once cooked, remove bacon, & pour all except 4 Tbs. of fat. Add the bread crumbs and cook, stirring frequently, until golden, about 2 minutes.

Make the sauce
In a large fry pan over medium-low heat, warm 4 Tbs. of the oil. Add the garlic, green onions, marjoram oregano and red pepper flakes and sauté until the onions are wilted, about 4 minutes. Stir in the bacon, cauliflower, parsley and broth. Raise the heat to medium and cook, stirring constantly, until the cauliflower is lightly colored and the liquid is slightly reduced, about 12 minutes.

Cook the pasta
Meanwhile, add the pasta to the boiling water and cook, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking, until al dente, according to the package instructions. Drain, reserving about 1/2 cup of the cooking water.
Add the pasta to the sauce and toss to combine. Add as much of the cooking water as needed to loosen the sauce.

Sprinkle the bread crumbs over the pasta and serve. Serves 4.

Adapted from Williams-Sonoma Food Made Fast Series, Pasta, by Julia della Croce (Oxmoor House, 2006).

And further adapted by the Case fam. =)
It says it's a 30 min meal....maybe if you already have pans heated and water boiling for cauliflower/pasta, otherwise it was close to an hour.  Then of course there's clean up, but we trade that off in our house so that one person isn't in the kitchen for HOURS!
We thoroughly enjoyed it...I may or may not have had 2nds....
We also discussed making a few more changes, like roasted the cauliflower rather than boiling or cutting back a bit on the red pepper.
Hope you enjoy as much as we did!