I was in my hometown – Urbana, Illinois – talking to Inga, one of my oldest and dearest friends. We were discussing gardening and cooking, as we inevitably do, when she said something simple that brought me up short. Something like: “I grow a lot of broccoli, because we eat a lot of it, and home-grown broccoli is so much better.”
Wait, what? I’d never given any thought to broccoli as something to even bother growing at home. Broccoli is broccoli, right? The brilliant green heads at the grocery store seemed fine. Uninspiring, sure, but, well… I mean, it’s just broccoli.
No, she assured me, broccoli is not just broccoli. But it was not the season, so she had no homegrown broccoli to share, and I pretty much forgot the conversation. Until I was browsing one of the eight or so tables at my tiny, beloved Nob Hill Grower’s Market on a recent Thursday and the woman next to me was buying the second-to-last head of fresh broccoli. She was enthusing to the grower about how terrific the head she’d bought the previous week had been.
“Really,” I asked, “is it that much better?”
Both women assured me that it was.
So naturally I snagged the last head. It was pretty, the little buds of the florets just a hair larger and less compactly packed than the ones I usually get at the grocery store, the color a dustier, bluer shade of green.
As I cut it up for dinner, I ate a piece of stem… and it was terrific, better than that grocery-store broccoli in a way that’s hard to describe. More vegetal, more complex, more alive. Just a tiny bit floral, even, which seems right given that it’s a big mass of flower buds.
We ate it simply steamed with a drizzle of olive oil. When I bought another head, I made Chinese broccoli beef. (So good!) Yesterday I bought a third head, and I wanted to showcase it in a simple preparation. So I surfed over to Smitten Kitchen to see what Deb had in the way of broccoli-based entrees. Not far down the recipe list was Pasta with Garlicky Broccoli Rabe, a beautifully simple recipe based on one from Gourmet magazine. Broccoli is not the same thing as broccoli rabe, but they can substitute for each other well enough. I was sold.
The method could hardly be simpler: The broccoli and pasta are cooked together, then tossed with olive oil warmed with garlic and chile flakes. Add some grated cheese and you’re done.
The dish was exactly what I was looking for. Simple, wholesome, delicious, attractive – more than the sum of its parts. It was a beautiful way to use that garden-fresh broccoli, but it would still be great with broccoli from the store. Or, what the heck, with the broccoli rabe from the original recipe.
On the Smitten Kitchen site, Deb warns against using iodized salt in this recipe; she says it can turn broccoli an unattractive color. This has never happened to me, but be warned.
You don’t have to use penne here – any chunky pasta shape that works well with the broccoli pieces will be fine. This recipe serves 2-3 and will double easily (in fact, it is halved as well as slightly modified from the recipe at Smitten Kitchen).
Spicy Penne with Broccoli and Garlic
Ingredients
- 8 ounces broccoli, locally grown if you can get it
- 3 tablespoons high-quality olive oil
- 2 large garlic cloves, peeled and minced or pressed
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or more or less to taste
- 1 minced anchovy or 1/2 teaspoon anchovy paste, optional
- 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt, to taste
- 8 ounces penne or similar-sized pasta
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup grated Parmesan or mixed grating cheese, to taste
- A squeeze of lemon juice, optional
- A couple grinds of black pepper
Instructions
- Fill a Dutch oven or other very large pot with salted water and set on the stove to boil.
- While the water comes to a boil, prepare your broccoli. Trim off tough ends and thick skin, then separate the florets into smallish bite-size pieces and cut the stems into similarly sized chunks. Set aside.
- Place the garlic, pepper flakes, anchovy if using, and salt in a small saucepan and set over low heat. You just want to infuse the flavors into the oil, not to brown the garlic. Keep an eye on it, and if it starts to sizzle strongly or if the garlic moves past light golden, turn off the heat. If you need to slow the cooking so as not to burn the garlic, drizzle in a little more olive oil and stir.
- When the water comes to a boil, add the penne and set a timer for 4 to 5 minutes less than the estimated cooking time for the pasta – use the longer time for tougher broccoli or if you’d like the vegetable softer.
- When the timer goes off, add the broccoli and reset the timer for the remaining 4 or 5 minutes. When the timer goes off again, remove 3/4 cup pasta water and set aside, then drain the pasta and return it to the pot.
- Pour the garlic-oil mixture over the pasta and broccoli, and add most of the cheese. (Set a few tablespoons aside to garnish the top of the pasta.) Toss and taste. Add about 1/4 cup of pasta water, more salt or red pepper if you think it needs it, and the squeeze of lemon (if using). Toss again. If the pasta seems a little dry still, add more pasta water; keep adding water and tossing until the pasta is moist and gleaming and irresistible.
- Portion into two heaping or three responsible bowls (heated ones if you planned ahead like I always forget to do), sprinkle with remaining cheese and a grind of black pepper, and serve hot.
Talk to me!