Sunday Night Pasta

Sunday’s aren’t the culinary highlight of our week, more of lazy day whereby whoever’s hungriest first makes the dinner. Last nights dinner involved prowling around the fridge and vegetable basket where I discovered a piece of broccoli, half a jar of anchovies and the last of our home grown cherry tomatoes. Yes, our own tomatoes in January. They weren’t exactly sun kissed but at least we knew where they came from and it would be a crime not to eat them.

It’s a fast and easy dinner to make.

First put a big pot of water to boil then prep the broccoli. Slice the stalks into discs and the head into several pieces. When the water boils add 1tsp salt and all of the broccoli. Cook for 1 minute. This takes the raw edge off of the vegetable. Lift the broccoli out of the water – save the water to cook the pasta – then cool in cold water, drain, and chop into smaller pieces

Check out the cooking time for your pasta, mine was 10-12 minutes which is perfect for bringing the dish together. Bring the water back to the boil and add another teaspoon of salt and the pasta . Give it a stir and check the clock or put a timer on

Put a large pan onto the heat, add good drizzle of olive oil and all of the broccoli. Cook stirring until the broccoli takes a little colour – around 4 minutes. Lift the broccoli from the pan then take the pan off the heat for a minute to cool a little before adding a little more olive oil, a couple of cloves of chopped garlic and a good pinch of chilli flakes.

Cooling the pan is important as you don’t want to burn the garlic. The garlic should sizzle all the same and once it’s cooked for 30 seconds the pan can go back on a medium heat. Stir in 4-5 anchovies – leave them out if you would like a vegetarian version – these will dissolve into the garlic mix then throw in the cherry tomatoes (which I halved). Turn the heat up and cook everything together for a minute or two then add the broccoli back into the pan.

As soon as the pasta is cooked drain it, saving a few spoonfuls of the cooking water to loosen everything up. Taste to check the seasoning – as the anchovies are salty it might just be perfect if not add a little salt

Toss the pasta with the vegetables and add enough water to moisten everything.

Serve with grated parmesan or pecorino

Delicious with a Sunday night glass of wine!