Proud Italian Cook

Sformato is a molded dish, usually a vegetable of some sort mixed in with a bechamel parmesan cheese sauce that turns into a light and fluffy almost custard like souffle. In this case I used cauliflower, but you could also use zucchini, spinach, asparagus, artichokes, and mushrooms, just to mention a few. The same thing goes with the sauces, the possibilities are endless!

I saw this awhile back on Linda’s blog and wanted to make it then, but never got around to it until recently when I saw it again in the recent issue of La Cucina Italiana magazine. In the magazine they used a ring mold which gave a pretty presentation but I didn’t have one so I just used my 6″ spring form pan which has deep sides, and that worked out very well.

Essentially you cook up your cauliflower then pulse it in a food processor, mix it in with your creamy savory custard sauce, season everything, place it in your mold and bake. The recipe says to boil your cauliflower, drain it, then squeeze out the excess water, I found that roasting it until tender was easier and I didn’t have to squeeze anything out, just make sure you don’t caramelize your veggies. I roasted mine at 375F but I was watching it often by pulling it out and checking for doneness. Here’s the link to the recipe, also before I placed it in the oven I sprinkled parmesan all over the top. I served mine with a light marinara sauce, it was delicious!