Recipes Pasta with Cauliflower, Peppers and Walnut Pesto 4.0 (2,451) 1 Review This vegetable-loaded pasta is equally delicious warm or cold. Jerry Traunfeld created it with the Eastern Mediterranean staples of cauliflower and bell peppers, which taste great together, especially when tossed in a garlicky walnut pesto.More Pasta Recipes By Jerry Traunfeld Jerry Traunfeld F&W Star Chef » See All F&W Chef Superstars Restaurant: Poppy, Seattle Experience: The Herbfarm, Woodinville, WA; Alexis Hotel, Seattle; Stars, San Francisco Education: California Culinary Academy What is your signature dish? The recipe I’m most famous for is slow-roast salmon with spring herb sauce. You roast it at a low temperature, between 225 and 250 degrees, which is a simple and a foolproof way to cook salmon, but you have to use wonderful, fresh wild salmon. My tip for the sauce, which is a very light butter sauce, is at the end you throw in tons of fresh herbs. Be exuberant with the herbs and chop them coarsely. My top choices are chervil, chives, lemon thyme and lovage, but there’s a huge variety and you can use basil, tarragon and parsley. What is the first dish you ever cooked? Julia Child’s potato leek soup. I was 11 or 12 years old; I was watching a lot of Julia Child on television, she was making this soup and it looked like fun. My mom was all for my making it, and the soup came out great, or at least they said it did. For a neophyte cook, soup is great, because it’s all about balancing flavor and you can learn about that and about chopping. What is your favorite cookbook of all time? I have many favorite cookbooks of all time, including Julia Child’s The French Chef; The Vegetarian Epicure, by Anna Thomas; From a Breton Garden, by Josephine Araldo and Robert Reynolds; Jane Grigson’s Vegetable Book; The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen, by Grace Young; Classic Indian Cooking, by Julie Sahni; and Paula Wolfert’s books. It’s too hard to choose just one. What is the most important skill you need as a chef? The most important skill you need to be a great cook is timing. Everything is based on timing. How long to keep the fish in the pan, when to start the peas if you’re adding them to the pasta, and on and on. Timing’s something you really have to have a sense of to be a good cook. What is the best bang-for-the-buck ingredient? Dried beans. In the winter I’ll cook a big batch of heirloom beans with some aromatics and then I’ll eat them all week. I’ll prepare them with some nice sausage, as bean cakes, in a soup or with a pasta dish. They’re really versatile, and cost almost nothing. What are you obsessed with cooking right now? I’ve been obsessed lately with Chinese cooking, and I use tons of recipes from Fuchsia Dunlop’s new book Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking. I’m going on a tour of China with her in October. Grace Young’s books are also hugely inspiring. I am really interested in Sichuan cooking. The thing that I’m really learning is the simplicity of Chinese cooking, and that you can always taste the ingredient, it’s not hidden. What do you snack on from the refrigerator? I always have kimchi in the refrigerator. My favorite snack is Kettle Brand Krinkle Cut Cheddar & Sour Cream potato chips. Food & Wine's Editorial Guidelines Updated on May 24, 2017 Print Rate It Share Share Tweet Pin Email Photo: © Petrina Tinslay Total Time: 40 mins Yield: 6 Ingredients 1 1/2 cups lightly packed cilantro leaves 1/2 cup lightly packed flat-leaf parsley leaves 3/4 cup walnuts 2 garlic cloves 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil Kosher salt 3/4 pound strozzapreti or orecchiette 1 small head of cauliflower (1 1/2 pounds), cut into 1-inch florets (about 4 cups) 1 small red bell pepper, cut into 2-by-1/4-inch strips 1 small yellow bell pepper, cut into 2-by-1/4-inch strips Freshly ground pepper Directions In a food processor, pulse the cilantro, parsley, walnuts and garlic until finely chopped. Add 6 tablespoons of the oil and process until smooth. Season with salt. In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the pasta until al dente. Drain the pasta and reserve 1/4 cup of the pasta water. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil. Add the cauliflower and season with salt. Cook over moderately high heat until browned in spots, 5 minutes. Add the bell peppers and cook until tender and brown in spots, 5 minutes. Scrape the vegetables into a bowl. Add the pasta, pesto and the reserved pasta water to the vegetables; toss until the pasta is coated. Season with salt and pepper. Spoon into warm bowls and serve. Notes One serving 494 cal, 49 gm carb, 29 gm fat, 3.7 gm sat fat, 12 gm protein, 4 gm fiber. Suggested Pairing This nutty pasta dish needs a fairly substantial white wine to go with it (true of pastas with pesto in general). A Chardonnay with some oak aging will work, as oak's vanilla and spice notes go well with nuts. Rate it Print