A good thing to do with broccoli
February 10th, 2006 Caroline
Roast it! Who knew? This recipe came with my weekly produce box (in which, inexplicably, there was another leek). I just assumed it was a pasta dish; it was only when I started to type up the recipe (after I made it for dinner last night) that I discovered there is, in fact, no pasta in the recipe. There is now! Because why stop at a side dish when it could be an entire simple and delicious supper?
Here’s the game plan: preheat the oven and bring the pasta water to a boil while you chop the broccoli, then cook the pasta and make the lemon-garlic butter while the broccoli roasts. Dinner in less than thirty minutes!
Pasta with Roasted Broccoli, Lemon-Garlic Butter and Toasted Pine Nuts
1 pound broccoli florets
2 tbsp olive oil
salt & pepper
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tsp minced garlic
1 lemon, zested and juiced
1 pound of pasta (penne or some other chunky shape is preferable, I think, to spaghetti for this)
toasted pine nuts
grated parmesan cheese
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Put up a big pot of water to boil.
In a large bowl, toss the broccoli with the oil, salt and pepper. Spread out on a baking sheet and roast, stirring once or twice, for 10-12 minutes, until just tender.
When the water is boiling, start cooking your pasta.
Meanwhile, melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and lemon zest and heat, stirring, for about a minute. Add the lemon juice. Remove from the heat.
Drain the cooked pasta, then toss it back into its cooking pot with the lemon-garlic butter and broccoli. Mix well.
Serve topped with toasted pine nuts and grated parmesan cheese.
Entry Filed under: Recipes
6 Comments
1. Susan | February 11th, 2006 at 7:09 am
Wow. Fascinating. And sounds delicious. And sounds like something my kids might even eat. Broccoli is the only vegetable that my younger lets pass her lips.
2. Linda Rigel | February 11th, 2006 at 2:26 pm
Okay, here comes a question to reveal my ignorance: Can you talk about the “zested” part of the lemon? How much physical “zest” does one end up with?
Hi Caroline! I’m Elisabeth’s writing group friend who met you at Susan’s house last year. Some day I will train myself to say Libby instead of Elisabeth . . .
yum on the recipe, by the way. I just read it to my son, and he waxed enthusiastic.
3. Caroline | February 11th, 2006 at 8:43 pm
Hi Linda, thanks for stopping by!
So, about that zest… I am on shaky ground when speaking about weights and measures, but you’re going to have a different measured volume of zest depending on how you get the zest off the lemon. If you use a vegetable peeler and then chop it up, the zest will be in bigger pieces and will therefore likely measure greater than if you use (as I did) a microplane grater, which produces tiny, fluffy bits of zest. And then lemons are all different sizes, too. But I think I wound up with around a teaspoon of zest and a couple tablespoons of juice from my one lemon. You can of course use more or less, according to your taste.
4. Libby | February 12th, 2006 at 2:30 pm
I might even try this one! (I think the kids like broccoli better than I do…)
And it looks like one to keep in mind for beach cooking, too…
5. Linda Rigel | February 12th, 2006 at 10:27 pm
Thanks Caroline — that actually clears a lot up for me about zest. I’ve even simply neglected to put zest in recipes because my brain couldn’t think about it . . . if that makes any sense.
6. Libby | February 20th, 2006 at 8:52 pm
Mmm, I made this tonight. Yum! (And remember, I’m nota broccoli fan.)
I think I got two-three tablespoons of zest and about a third of a cup of juice from my lemon, for what it’s worth.