Pasta with Roman-Style Broccoli Sauce Ingredients: Pasta Sprouting broccoli Garlic Spinach 1/2 Lemon Pecorino cheese (For best results, read recipe fully before beginning.) 1) Prepare the ingredients: - Heat a pot of generously salted water to the boil on high. - You’ll be using all parts of the broccoli, but will be cooking them slightly dierently. Trim any large lengths of stem away from the broccoli florets, then slice the stem into thin discs. Reserve separately. - Finely grate the cheese. - Using the side of your knife, smash the garlic clove. Remove and discard the paper skin. - Using a cheese grater or microplane, zest the lemon. Reserve the zest, then halve and de-seed the lemon. 2) Blanch the broccoli: - When the water is boiling, add the broccoli stems and cook until fully tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in the spinach and cook until wilted, about 15 seconds. Using a slotted spoon, transfer all to a blender (if you don’t have a blender, a food processor will work, or you can just keep it rustic and not chop up at all). Reserve 1/4 cup of the cooking water. - Add the broccoli florets to the boiling water and cook until crisp-tender, about 2 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to a colander and run under cold water until cooled. 3) Cook the pasta: - To the boiling water that the broccoli was cooked in, add the pasta and cook for 7.5 minutes (for al dente). Drain, reserving 1/2 cup of the cooking water.
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4) Make the sauce, while the pasta cooks: - To the blender with the broccoli stems and spinach, add the garlic, the lemon zest, a glug of olive oil, and enough of the reserved broccoli water to puree the ingredients. 5) Finish the pasta: - To the drained cooked pasta, add the blanched broccoli florets, the broccoli sauce, and the reserved pasta water and cook, stirring constantly, until the sauce thickens slightly and the pasta is well-coated. Remove from heat, add the juice of the lemon wedges and the grated pecorino and stir to combine. - Divide between 2 bowls. Enjoy!