This dish is a family favorite – a combination of pasta with a ricotta, spinach and pecorino stir-through sauce, served with steamed baby broccoli tips dressed with butter, garlic and olive oil, accompanied with freshly grated parmesan cheese.
Preparation and cooking time: 15 minutes.
The finished dish, pasta with broccoli.
For this dish I prepared a dressing for the broccoli using a small bowl (about 50 mls. in size) and combined a heaped teaspoon of butter (or margarine), one crushed garlic clove, a sprinkle of chopped chives, and a dribble of olive oil. Using the teaspoon I folded the mixture together until smooth. Once the broccoli is ready to serve, pour the mixture over it and toss lightly to distribute evenly.
I’m using an off-the-shelf stir though pasta sauce. In this particular example its Kraft Foods Ricotta, Spinach and Pecorino Sauce available in most supermarkets. When the pasta was cooked, I simply mixed in two heaped tablespoons of the sauce, stirred it though to get a good distribution, and then shared the pasta out on the the plates. After that, just add the dressed brocolli and your ready to serve.
Starting with the broccoli pictured below I cut off the thick stems, leaving just the broccoli flowers on the little stems. I steamed these for about 7 minutes before adding the dressing (see above). Fortunately we have one of those great spaghetti cooker things with a container for the pasta and a steamer above which makes cooking this meal a breeze.
Some pasta.
Fresh baby brocolli and garlic.
Ingredients (2 serves)
- 1-2 cloves of garlic
- tsp of butter or margarine
- a dribble of olive oil
- a sprinkle of chopped chives
- 180-240 grams pasta
- 100 grams baby broccoli
- Ricotta, Spinach and Pecorino stir-through sauce (Kraft Foods)
- 1/4 cup of grated parmesan cheese
Method
- put on the pasta
- prepare broccoli dressing by mixing together the butter, crushed garlic cloves, chives and olive oil – set aside
- about 7 or 8 minutes before the pasta is done, start steaming the broccoli and preheat two of three tablespoons of the stir-though source
- when the pasta and broccoli are done, drain the pasta and mix though the preheated sauce, and pour the prepared dressing over the broccoli
- serve the pasta into the individual plates and garnish with the dressed broccoli
- serve with grated parmesan cheese in a side dish