Pasta e Broccoli
Serves 4, 35 min
My daughter will eat this, and it contains broccoli. What more do you need to know?
You can use the same pot of water to cook the broccoli and the pasta. When you’re done cooking the broccoli, it should have the consistency almost of a thick (chunky) sauce.
Ingredients
- 1 lb. cut pasta. I like bowties
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 lb. broccoli, heads and stalks
- 4 T olive oil
- Plenty of black pepper
- Plenty of Parmesean, grated
- Red pepper flakes or calibirian pepper (optional)
Steps
Boil a large pot of water and salt it.
Cut the broccoli: peel the tough outer fibers from the stalks and slice into coins about 1/8" thick. Roughly chop the heads.
Toss the broccoli into the boiling water and boil for about 5 minutes, or until you can pierce the thickest pieces easily with a fork.
Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large skillet over med-low heat. When the broccoli is getting close to done, add the garlic and sauté until fragrant but not at all browned. If it starts to brown you can toss in a bit of the broccoli-cooking water to stop it cooking.
Using a spider1 or slotted spoon, transfer the broccoli to the skillet, leaving the water boiling. Raise the heat to med-high. Start cooking the broccoli, using a wooden spoon, spatula, or potato masher (really! it’s what I use) to mash the broccoli to a pulp. Add black pepper and red pepper flakes or calibrian chile if using. Add a little salt as well, but you’ll get a lot of salt from the pasta-cooking water, so go easy. As the broccoli starts to brown, you can add a little pasta-cooking water to the pan and scrape up the browned broccoli, it adds flavor.
While you cook the broccoli, add the pasta to the boiling water and cook it (it will be full of little broccoli florets. That’s fine). It will take about 10 minutes to cook the broccoli, so if your pasta shape is quick-cooking, wait a few minutes, and if it’s slower add it immediately.
When the pasta is a little less than al dente (maybe a minute less than the package directions), use the spider or spoon to transfer it to the skillet with the broccoli sauce (or if you must, drain it and reserve a cup or two of the cooking water). Add a cup of water to the sauce, raise the heat to med-hi, and stir vigorously. Cook until the the pasta is done and the sauce is…well..saucy. Lower the heat and stir in grated cheese.