This recipe is so simple, quick and healthy. In this dish you cook the broccoli with the pasta in a small amount of water. It goes against the traditional way of cooking pasta by boiling it, but it works. This recipe works best with rapini, but my rugrats won’t eat rapini. Frankly, many adults don’t eat rapini either due to it’s bitterness, but hey, I like it. I guess it’s an acquired taste. Another choice is baby broccoli. If you use broccoli, you can blanch the broccoli first, but I don’t like mushy veggies, so I don’t bother with the blanching and it comes out great.
I know the recipe says spaghettini, but you can also use linguine. I’ve been asked to include more vegetarian dishes, so this one is for all my herbivore friends.
Wash the broccoli and cut it up, leaving the florets. Set aside.
Put 2 tablespoons of safflower oil and 6 tablespoons of olive oil in a large deep pan, turn up the heat.
Chop 4 cloves of garlic and add to the oil. I did it the lazy way using one of my favorite kitchen tools. It’s a Cuisinart Mini-Prep food processor. It’s small and comes in very handy, invest in one. They save lots of time and effort when you’re not in the mood for chopping. For even more flavor, add some hot pepper flakes to the oil which of course I did not add, due to my kiddies.
When the oil gets hot, add the broccoli.
Add 1 cup of water.
When the water begins to boil, add the pasta. Break into 2 inch lengths or basically one stalk of pasta into three equal parts.
Very important! Make sure to mix the pasta and the broccoli very well at the beginning or the pasta will stick and you will have a mess on your hands. Once thoroughly mixed, add salt and pepper and cover. Cook over medium low heat. Stir often so that the pasta does not stick to the bottom of the pot. Add more water if needed. Cook for about 12 minutes and serve with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.
Tools needed:
1 large deep pan with a cover
Ingredients:
a bunch of broccoli or 1 pound of rapini
4 cloves of chopped garlic
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons safflower oil
hot pepper flakes (optional)
water
1/2 lb of spaghettini or linguine
salt and pepper
freshly grated Parmesan (optional)
cooking method:
Wash and cut the broccoli leaving just the florets. This dish is great with rapini. If you like rapini, use it. In a large pan, add 6 tablespoons olive oil, 2 tablespoons safflower oil the garlic and the optional hot pepper flakes. When the oil gets hot, add the broccoli, 1 cup of water and the pasta, cut into 2 inch lengths. Very important! Make sure to mix the pasta very well in the beginning or it will all stick and you will have a mess. Add the salt and pepper and cover. Cook over medium low heat. Make sure to stir often making sure that the pasta does not stick to the bottom of the pan. Add more water as needed. Cook for about 12 minutes. Enjoy!
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