Pasta with broccoli sauce

Dinner last night was a house-hold favourite – my pasta with broccoli sauce.  The Hungry Twins lapped it up, or should that be gobbled??

This pasta dish uses broccoli to make the sauce – sounds confusing?  It’s not – it is very easy to make and is always a standby dish in our house when I can’t really be bothered to cook.  The traditional version of this uses orecchiette (“small ears”), which is delicious but I don’t always have it in my cupboard.   The dish works just as well with more common types of pasta, such as spirals (fusilli) or bows (farfalle).   The bacon (or pancetta, whichever is in the fridge) adds a bit of saltiness to the dish and it works well with the broccoli.  We add chilli to our own dishes after it has been cooked, as we prefer different levels of heat.

Pasta with broccoli sauce

• Preparation time: 10 minutes
• Cooking time: 10 minutes to cook pasta (or as per maker’s instructions), 5 minutes to coat the pasta in the sauce
• Makes: 4 serves

 Ingredients

• Head of broccoli, cut into florets
• 300 gm dried pasta (orecchiette, fusilli or farfalle)
• Pinch of table salt
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 4 rashers of bacon or pancetta, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• OPTIONAL 1 small red chilli, finely chopped (you can use chilli flakes or we like to use homemade harissa)
• Grated parmesan

Method

1. Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil, add a pinch of salt.  Add pasta and broccoli florets to boiling water, cook for 10 minutes (or as per the maker’s instructions).
2. Meanwhile, cook the bacon pieces in a large frying pan on medium heat until they start to brown.  Turn heat down slightly, add garlic and chilli (if using) and stir until garlic is soft.  If pasta is not yet ready, turn heat down to low to prevent garlic burning.
3. When pasta is just al dente (you won’t want to overcook it as it will cook in the frying pan a little), reserve about a cup of the cooking liquid and then drain the pasta and broccoli.
4. Add the pasta and broccoli to the frying pan, turn up the heat to medium high.
5. Stir the pasta to break up the broccoli florets and spread over the pasta.  Use the spoon to crush any broccoli stems to a pulp.  If stems are a little woody, discard them.  Add half of the reserved cooking liquid to help the broccoli coat the pasta (add the rest, if needed).
6. After five minutes, remove from heat and add freshly grated parmesan to dish and stir.
7. Serve, with extra grated parmesan (for those who like more cheese) and chilli on the side (for those who like it hot!).

Yum, yum. Love that broccoli pasta!

Keep the pasta coming!!