Ingredients (for 4 people)
Broccoli (2 x small heads, or 1 x large). You can use any kind of broccoli, or even replace with kale or another brassica.
Olive oil.
Garlic.
Peperoncino.
Anchovies (or leave out, for the vegan/vegetarian version).
Orechiette (‘little ear’) pasta, or another short-shape pasta like rigatoni.
Instructions
Boil the broccoli florets in a large pan of salted water. Make sure the pan is large enough to cook the pasta in afterwards!
When the hardest bit of the stem has softened, take out of the pan and put aside in a dish. Use a lovely sieve with hand-carved wooden handle if you have one ;) Don’t throw this water away, since you’ll be using it to cook the pasta later.
In another large pan (e.g. a frying pan), put some oil, garlic, anchovies and peperoncino.
Very lightly fry (never let the garlic go brown - this applies to all Italian cooking).
Add the broccoli and start to fry them, turning up the flame up. Slightly mash them as you go. Keep adding a bit of the cooking water, to stop them from burning.
After around ten minutes (when all the flavours are mixed together), turn off the heat.
Then reboil the water that you cooked the broccoli in. Add the pasta and cook until it is almost ready.
Take the pasta out of the water (again - keep the water!) and add to the frying pan. Stir together with the broccoli. Turn on the heat again, and keep stirring and adding some of the cooking water, until you have a nice texture and everything is mixed together.
Let it cool a bit, and then serve. Add pecorino romano (or parmesan) if you like before serving.
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