You get home late, everyone is hungry and the nearest take away resturant seems to be the obvious choice. But it doesn’t have to be. I like this delicious, quick meal for times such as this. As long as you have a couple of broccoli heads in the refrigerator along with the pantry staples of pasta, garlic and bottled anchovies you have a great easy dinner. Top it off with fabulous parmesan reggiano or gran padano. Buonissimo!
The method is simple and variable to your taste. This is mine!
Firstly take two heads of broccoli, break it into flowerettes and wash them well.
Put a large pot of water, well salted, on to boil. Meanwhile in a cold frying pan put a good 1/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil, 4 finely chopped cloves of garlic and 3 or 4 fillets of bottled anchovies. Slowly heat the pan up over the flame, crushing the anchovies until they melt into the mixture. At this point everyone should be gathering into the kitchen to find out what exactly is for dinner because it smells so good!
When your pot of water is boiling rapidly add the broccoli.
By now the anchovies will have melted and amalgamated well with the garlic and oil. Don’t burn your garlic! Add a spoonful of chopped chillies if you like heat.
When your broccoli is tender remove with a slotted spoon and add to your pan of oil, garlic and anchovies. Cook 500g pasta of choice in the same water that the broccoli was cooked in until al dente.
I always add a few spoonfuls of tomato passata but that is your choice. Simmer for a few minutes for the flavours to meld. Taste, always taste! Adjust the seasoning if needed – a grind of pepper will be a must!
Drain the pasta and mix with the broccoli sauce adding a good handful of parmesan. Please use a really good freshly grated cheese not the cardboard, smelly stuff the comes pregrated in cheese shakers!
Call everyone to the table and serve with extra parmesan.
In our household this is enough for about 4 hungry people!
msmeanie
23/04/2010 at 12:32 amDon't you just love pasta with vegetables. So simple and so good. Yours looks delish!
Anita
22/04/2010 at 9:21 amAhhh – quick, easy and tasty – and a lot cheaper than take-out. I always try and convince people it's quite easy to through something together at night..
Gastronomy Gal
22/04/2010 at 2:15 amoo this is a good one- I really need to start getting into the habit of doing quick and easy meals like this instead of either going to the local shop and spending a fortune on ingredients or heading for take-away.
dana
20/04/2010 at 7:33 pmI love love love broccoli! This would be so good! The other person I tend to cook for likes anything that involves parmesan cheese, so I need to try this out! I might need to put the anchovy in covertly…
Barbara Bakes
20/04/2010 at 2:34 amWhat a great one pot meal. I haven't tried broccoli with pasta.
Ago
18/04/2010 at 7:15 pmQuesto è un vero piatto italiano!!!! Good very very good Marcellina!!!! I use the same method to do my pasta and the chilli…it's the true italian touch! :-***
Michele
18/04/2010 at 1:09 pmI love this dish! I totally agree that it's easy to create a fast pasta dish and it's better than going out! Delish!
shaz
18/04/2010 at 1:08 pmSounds very quick and healthy. Must admit the household is not very big on brocolli but we like everything else (anchovies, parmesan etc)…so it's just a matter of finding a different veg that works well 🙂 Although your dish looks so tasty, I'thinking it might win them over.
grace
18/04/2010 at 9:39 ambroccoli isn't one of my favorite veggies and it often needs lots of help to get my stomach rumbling. you've achieved the rumble with this dish–the pepper flakes and mounds of cheese make all the difference in the world! 🙂
Simona
18/04/2010 at 6:46 amLooks beautiful! I love broccoli. I can smell your spaghetti: I am sure there wasn't a string left.
Proud Italian Cook
18/04/2010 at 2:13 amAnother one of my favorite dinners. Who wants takeout when you can have this!
Ciao Chow Linda
18/04/2010 at 1:57 amThis looks like a quick and delicious meal. Isn't it amazing how much faster it can be to make a good and healthy dinner instead of relying on takeout that probably isn't as tasty and costs more than it should too?