Penne with Broccoli
- 5 Tablespoons Olive Oil, More Or Less
- 5 cloves Garlic, Finely Chopped
- 1/2 cups Pine Nuts
- 2 Tablespoons Red Pepper Flakes (or To Taste)
- 2 pounds Broccoli, Cut Into Small Florets
- 1 can Chicken Or Vegetable Broth
- 1 box Whole Wheat Penne Pasta
- 1- 1/2 cup Grated Pecorino Romano Cheese
- In a large pot, heat the olive oil until it shimmers.
- Add the garlic, pine nuts, and red pepper flakes and stir to coat with the oil.
- Allow to simmer until the garlic smells really good and the pine nuts are starting to brown.
- Add some salt.
- When the pine nuts and garlic and red pepper flakes are all cooking happily together, add the broccoli to the pot (you may need to pour in a bit more oil).
- Stir vigorously to coat the florets with the oil and other ingredients.
- Pour in the can of chicken broth, lower the heat, cover the pot, and let it simmer.
- This is the hard part: youve always heard that you need to cook broccoli just a little, right?
- Leaving it crisp?
- Forget that.
- You are going to cook the broccoli in the chicken broth until it is soft and breaks apart.
- It takes about half an hour, depending on how much broccoli you used and how finely you cut it up.
- While the broccoli is cooking, heat a pot of salted water to boiling and cook the pasta.
- You want it VERY al dente still with almost a stiffness to it.
- It needs that body to stand up to the broccoli mixture.
- Drain the pasta and rinse it with cold water to stop the cooking.
- When the broccoli is soft, taste it and adjust the seasonings.
- For some reason this dish requires more salting than youd think necessary.
- Dump in the pasta and stir vigorously to coat all of the pasta with the lovely broccoli and garlic and pine nut goodness.
- Then dump in a cup and a half of grated Romano cheese (more or less, I like lots of cheese) and stir it up again.
- Ladle into bowls and serve.
- Garnish with more pine nuts if you like.
- IMPORTANT: Parmesan cheese does not work in this dish.
- For some reason the tastes dont meld nearly as well.
- It needs to be Romano, preferably fresh grated.
- For vegetarians, the Swansons Vegetable broth works well in lieu of chicken broth.
- It doesnt taste quite as good to me, though.
olive oil, garlic, nuts, red pepper, broccoli, chicken, whole wheat penne pasta, romano cheese
Taken from tastykitchen.com/recipes/main-courses/penne-with-broccoli/ (may not work)