Cauliflower Onion Linguine (spaghetti)

Tonights dinner was off of http://www.foodnetwork.com. I was missing a couple of the ingredients so left some out and substituted for others. I will let you know what I did in the parenthesis throughout the recipe.  

Cauliflower Onion Linguine

• Kosher salt
• 12 ounces linguine ( used spaghetti )
• 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup panko ( I toasted up an english muffin and zapped it in my ninja)
• 1/2 cup fried onions, chopped
• 4 cups cauliflower florets, roughly chopped ( I roughly chopped mine and I would say to make the pieces no bigger that 1 by 1 inch)
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese, plus more for topping
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil (did not have this was going to buy day of cause it is expensive and goes bad fast)
• 1/4 cup pine nuts ( very expensive and they do not sell these at walmart so forgot to pick up elsewhere)
• I added 1T of heavy cream

Directions

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook as the label directs. Reserve 1 cup cooking water, then drain the pasta. Return to the pot and toss with 1 tablespoon olive oil.

Meanwhile, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook about 30 seconds. Add the panko and fried onions and cook, stirring, until lightly toasted, about 3 minutes. Transfer to a plate; wipe out the skillet.

Heat the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil in the skillet over medium-high heat. Add the cauliflower and cook until the edges brown, about 4 minutes. Add the red pepper flakes and toast 30 seconds. Add the reserved pasta water and cook until the liquid is reduced by half and the cauliflower is crisp-tender, about 1 more minute.

Add the pasta, onion mixture and parmesan to the skillet and toss (I added about a tablespoon of heavy cream here noticing that it was sticking together and not very moist). Season with salt. Top with the basil, pine nuts and more parmesan.

Rating- 4 out of 5

look- all one color so not super appealing to the eye

difficulty-  directions were pretty easy to follow although there are alot of steps 

review- The overall taste of this recipe was very good. But it was very dry. I left out the pine nuts and basil as noted above and I do think that both of these would add alot. It would be helpful to dump this into a serving dish because all of the cauliflower and onion mixture fell to the bottom. 

My kids and husband all loved it including Parker. Although he did say that he didnt like the Cauliflower but when I gave him a bit with the cauliflower in it there was nothing about not liking it. I think that is just a kid thing or maybe just a BOY thing lol. He was trying to push mommy's buttons. I would say next time I am going to probably make a cream sauce to go with this I would just add probably like 1/2 a cup of heavy cream in the pan along with the reserved pasta water and let it simmer for awhile and then pour it all together. That is what I will be trying next time. Let me know what you think if you try this recipe. And if there are any other recipes that you would like me to try and write a review about feel free to send it my way. My family thanks you ahead of time for all the good ideas.