Broccoli Pasta with Garlic and Olive Oil

Today I'm cooking broccoli gently with pasta and olive oil and garlic. This is another very simple recipe where I'm going to be turning a vegetable into a proper meal and it's part of the food that looks after you little series, a bit like the cavolo nero and the cardellini beans meal I did recently, where simplicity but very tasty and incredibly nutritious for you and very healthy of course. I just washed the broccoli and I'm slicing the florets in little pieces just using a normal knife and I'll cut them in half here. I'll show you this one for example, it's a little bit big. I'll go in the middle and I'll end up with something like this. The trunk is also very good by the way, so I'll remove the bottom part and the top part and I'm going to keep it. I get the bottom bit because it's a bit manky, but what about the top? What's wrong with that? Because if you look there's an awful lot of the outer skin here, the outer peel, so this is the part that I want to keep. So I'm going on an angle and I'll remove as much of the tough woody part as possible and retain the white a bit. You can do the same with cauliflowers by the way, you can also adapt cauliflowers with this recipe. Broccoli are slightly tastier and also a little bit more colourful, but this is what I was getting at. So you end up with something like this, this can go to a compost bin and to ensure that everything cooks roughly at the same time I'm going to just chop it in half and in half again and I'll finish chopping the rest of my florets. I've got some water boiling, this is the same water I will use to also cook the pasta, so I'm going to add some salt now and then I will not be adding any later and I'll start by pretty much blanching the broccoli. I'll put it in in the boiling water and I will leave it to cook for four minutes, no more than four minutes. I do not want to cook it too aggressively, sometimes actually we forget that if we cook it for too long broccoli loses its properties and also it becomes very soft, it retains its fibre which is great for you but also the flavour and the taste is much better, so four minutes, no more than that. And I start putting together the base of my simple pasta, so some olive oil at the bottom of a pan and I've got here one large clove of garlic. I'm cooking for one tonight actually because Mrs. Tortellino is going out and I'm cooking for myself. Going to the pub with the girls for a ketchup and a meal. Yes, so when I say to her what I was planning to cook, do you know what she said? She said you're welcome to her, she's not keen and she does this from time to time, I'll tell her what I'm cooking, I'm not keen on that and then she tries it and she says oh actually it's very nice, so we'll see about this one. It's the thought of a whole meal being based around a broccoli, same with the cauliflower and then yes you're right I am quite often surprised, there we are. So if you were to cook for more than one person of course use two cloves of garlic but if you're to cook for say six people, no more than four and you do want the garlic to be there but you do not want to be overpowering. Also I'm adding a red chilli pepper, this is mild. If you don't like chilli peppers by the way, I'll also be adding some chilli flakes later, do not bother, but the red chilli pepper will add some kick and also brightness whereas when I will add the chilli flakes at the end they will add depth. So I can go back and move on to hope now. When you start and sizzling the garlic and the chilli pepper make sure that your temperature is on medium, you want the garlic to gently release the flavour without browning it and medium is perfect. So just leave like that, in the meantime you'll have seen that my broccoli have cooked, I'll turn the temperature up, I'll remove them from the water and it's boiling again and I'm going to be cooking some conchiglie which is perfect for this recipe but you can use any pasta you like and I'll cook the conchiglie all the way but one minute so that they are just before al dente. In the meantime I'll get my olives ready and again this is another optional ingredient, I like olives and I think in this particular dish will add additional depth alongside the broccoli and olives and broccoli marry really well. Also instead of olives if you can use capers or capers and olives together however if you do do that be slightly careful because they're both quite strong and the idea of meals like this is their simplicity so if you actually want to keep it really simple don't put either in but entirely up to you but I do like a few olives so I'm going to add just a few, maybe another one and I'll be done. I'm actually using some black olives today because they look very nice but I could have very well used greens or anything you've got available. I can vouch for those ones at the end there with the whole garlic. I've eaten three or four already but had to stop because I was worrying about the girls tonight. Okay let's move back to the pasta and the pasta is about four minutes before it's ready so this is a good time to add my broccoli to my garlic here which has been gently simmering away. I'll continue mixing together with the oil and the garlic whilst the pasta finishes cooking but do remember to keep it on a medium temperature. Do not be tempted to turn it up because gentle in this recipe is the secret. I'm nearly there with the pasta so the first thing I'll do is to add the olives. I'm adding them now otherwise they will be releasing far too much flavour and my pasta is almost done. I've got a slotted spoon here and purposely I'm keeping some of the water and I'll start moving it across with my broccoli and everything else. Before I continue though I'm going to pinch a generous ladle of water, cooking water and add it to it like this and this will finish cooking the pasta as it is still one minute before it's al dente and it will release a little layer of cream to my broccoli and the pasta will also absorb some of the flavour from my broccoli and from my olives and everything else. This is ready, just a few finishing touches and I can serve. So I mentioned chili flakes, different aromatic layer, just a little on the top first here, a little parmesan cheese whilst everything is still in my pan, a little olive oil, mix it together and by now you will know that you've done it right because the smell is amazing and if you look carefully you should have a tiny little amount of water at the bottom just like this which is perfect, you don't want this to be too liquidy and just serve yourself a portion and of course do not forget some of that lovely sauce on top. I suspect there'll be enough for me to have a little try as well, a little mid-afternoon snack and I know I've added olive oil but this is yet again very Sicilian so you have to. I'll finish with one last, very last sprinkle of again chili flakes, this is more decorative if anything else but also because it's still fresh it will taste different. I'm going to spoon and try it. Mrs Tortellino has agreed to join me as she was a little bit sceptic. Well I'm a little bit peckish so I felt I should really try it. So go on you give your verdict also. Got a little kick. It's lovely, do you like it? What are you eating tonight? Oh lamb cubes on a skewer with chips and bread and mint sauce I think there is and anyway yeah it's another beautiful simple meal from Sicily, if you make it you can do it without the olives also as I said and that may be a little bit less chili if you're not too keen. Enjoy, grazie, buon appetito, ciao ciao!