The Veggie-Topped Toast Ina Garten Swears By For Busy Weeknights

Leave it to Ina Garten to make toast absolutely crave-worthy. This weeknight meal is easy to put together, requires a minimal amount of prep work, and is loaded with both vegetables and cheese. It can be handily adapted to accommodate your tastes or what you have lingering in the back of the fridge. Garten combines roasted cauliflower, salty prosciutto, creamy mascarpone, funky Gruyère, and nutty Parmesan. Then she adds simple seasonings like paprika, nutmeg, red pepper flakes, and chives, and serves this lovely creamy mixture piled on top of country-style white bread.

Ina Garten always keeps high-quality fridge essentials on hand: "good" butter, "good" chocolate, "good" mustard. You know her vibe. This attention to detail is one of the reasons simple recipes like this one really shine. For a low-lift recipe like this cauliflower toast, it is worth it to break out the "good" olive oil or defrost the slices of artisan sourdough in your freezer. If you don't have these sorts of ingredients on hand, don't fret — you really can't go wrong with a broiled, hearty, cheesy, bready situation.

In Ina Garten's opinion, cauliflower is severely underrated. While it may look a little pallid, as is the case with many vegetables, roasting it brings out great caramelized color and flavor. Start by cutting the cauliflower into florets. Here's a tip from Garten — start cutting from the stem side instead of the crown to avoid creating a pile of cauliflower confetti on your cutting board. Toss with olive oil, season simply to taste, and spread in a single layer on a baking sheet. Roast at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 25 to 30 minutes, tossing a few times so that the florets get little brown bits all over.

If you don't have cauliflower, you could easily substitute broccoli, summer squash, Brussels sprouts, asparagus, cabbage, or mushrooms. You could even go in a completely different direction and throw some aromatics and alliums in the oven like a combination of fresh fennel, shallots, and garlic.

For this toast, you need to mix the cauliflower with a few delicious salty, creamy, and cheesy elements. Of course, you can follow Ina Garten's recipe exactly if you have all those ingredients, but there are lots of reasonable substitutes you can make that will still yield a very tasty final product.

Mascarpone is buttery, rich, and ever so slightly sweet. It is delightful, but in its place, you can also use cream cheese, crème fraîche, sour cream, Greek yogurt, ricotta, or even cottage cheese — just do yourself a favor and dollop in the full-fat versions. Gruyère, an aged cow's milk cheese from France, is earthy and super melty, so if you don't have it, use another cheese that's big on flavor and melts well — Swiss, gouda, fontina, and cheddar all work well here. No Parmesan in the fridge? Another hard cheese like Pecorino Romano, Grana Padano, or even a sprinkle of nutritional yeast can stand in. Garten also incorporates thinly sliced prosciutto. Use any other cured meat — ham, capicola, salami, or crispy bacon — for that savory punch.

Pile the mixture on "good" toasted bread, and broil for a few minutes. Garten tops the bubbly browned toasts with chives for a delicate, oniony touch and freshness, but this is an excellent time to use up other tender herbs like tarragon, dill, parsley, or basil. Serve with a glass of pinot grigio, albariño, or a pinot noir because, why not?