Italian · dinner
60m
Total time
4
Servings
780
kcal
medium
Difficulty
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FAQ · Things people ask
In Sicilian dialect, 'vruoccoli' historically referred to cauliflower — the word predates the modern green vegetable that now carries the name universally. Cauliflower kept the older term in Sicily, which is why the dish sounds like a mislabelling but isn't.
Yes — omit the anchovies and compensate with an extra pinch of salt and a tablespoon of capers for briny depth. The dish loses some of its savory foundation but saffron, onion, and the cauliflower water carry it reasonably well. A few chopped black olives added with the raisins also help.
Yes. The version here is the bianco — saffron-based. The in rosso version replaces saffron with two tablespoons of tomato concentrate or a ladle of passata. Both are traditional Palermo variants. A baked timbale topped with breadcrumbs is the festive form of the red version.
This is muddica atturrata — the traditional Sicilian substitute for grated cheese on pasta. Cheese was expensive; breadcrumbs were not. Toasted in olive oil until golden and crisp, they add the same textural punctuation and a nutty richness. Using parmesan here is a variant, not the canonical form.
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