Broccoli, pasta - ordinary - but ...

"What’s courageous about the timeless combination of broccoli and pasta?" Deb Perelman/Smitten Kitchen

The answer is nothing of course. Indeed as I turned the page on my New York Times desk calendar and found this dish Skillet broccoli spaghetti from Ali Slagle, my first thought was really? What's so special about this that it deserves to be promoted by a prestige newspaper? And I think Ali Slagle is a 'name' in the cooking world as well.

And then I opened up my Smitten Kitchen newsletter and there were a whole lot of similar dishes with various different greens - well it's spring over there in New York, but it did make me think I should really try and write something about why prestigious foodie websites and magazines, and all those Instagrammers and TikTokers churn out the same basic recipes time and time again.

Deb's penultimate Smitten Kitchen recipe, however, was this Pasta with garlicky broccoli rabe which I recognised as the classic dish from Puglia, which various people seem to think is made with broccoli - I will come to that, but which is actually made from broccoli rabe - a kind of leafy green vegetable that I once found in the Queen Victoria Market, but have not found since. Probably a specialist kind of greengrocer would have it. Deb Perelman, however, is not quite classic as she made hers with a different kind of pasta to the traditional orecchiette. But then her aim here, having found the broccoli rabe is to cook something "lightning-quick, lazy, and completely satisfying dinner (or LQLACSD for short)."

And then she goes on to say something which I at least, found quietly flattering, because I think I can at last place myself in this category:

"This thing where you can grab anything at random without a shopping list in hand or recipe in mind and transform it effortlessly into a LQLACSD, this is real cooking. This is what separates those grandmothers that cranked out dinner like clockwork every night for 60 years, that didn’t throw in the towel because they only had canned peas and stale rice in the pantry, from the dilettantes. And people? Over 750 recipes into this site, I’m still getting there. Sometimes a simple recipe, one that you make once and instantly memorize and throw into the dinner rotation, helps."

And this is why people such as she and The New York Times crank out the recipes we oldies know and love, but for the people who are much younger and who don't know. For the oldies who are even a tiny bit bored with such recipes nowadays we have those who take the classics and experiment. So herewith a slight exploration of broccoli and pasta. Or as Deb also says:

"These days, I’ll read a recipe for a cauliflower dish in a magazine and think: broccoli would work here." and "It is dinner, salad and a vegetable dish in one. It is quick. It could be dolled up in any number of ways — toasted breadcrumbs, minced capers or green olives, some ricotta — but it needs none of these to delight."

And so I'll begin with that classic Puglian dish of orechiette and broccoli rabe, which quickly morphs into orechiette with broccoli - or maybe cauliflower, broccolini ... Guy Grossi's father came from Puglia and I found two versions from him of the classic - with the leafy broccoli rabe, not broccoli - one with potatoes, and the other with pancetta - Orechiette con cime di rapa - in delicious. and Orechiette con cime di rapa from the SBS Food Safari series

I'm not sure about the potatoes, but the classic other ingredients, as in my starting point recipe, are garlic, anchovies and chilli, but of course, others have played with the basics and added other things: I'll begin with the Libertà in Cucina website and Giorgio Locatelli - a renowned Italian chef, who offers a Sicilian version which adds sultanas and pine nuts, and is made with a different pasta - Casarecce con broccoli, acciughe e pinoli. Ottolenghi has two variations, one less classic than the other - bear in mind that he too has an Italian father - Orecchiette with broccoli and rocket  and Orecchiette with broccoli, anchovy and cumin and finally Rukmini Iyer - of Indian heritage, offers Orecchiette with purple sprouting broccoli, blue cheese and hazelnuts 

Going back to Deb Perelman's LQLACSD dishes there are a whole lot of quick and easies in which often the broccoli is at some stage puréed. Deb herself offers Spaghetti with broccoli cream pasta with this, almost lyrical advice, :

"The parmesan comes at the end, and you should shower the whole bowl with it; it is the seasoning, punch, and highlight of the dish. ... grown-ups don’t mind it much either but with us in mind, I’d use more garlic and a good bit of red pepper flakes too. And we’d eat it with wine. And we’d watch out the window as the yellowing leaves whoosh down the busy avenue below and, at least briefly, put thoughts of other idylls aside."

Other quick and fast and easy options would be: Broccoli pasta - Mimi Thorisson; Quick green pasta - Jamie Oliver who includes spinach and peas; Box grater broccoli pasta - Alice Zaslavsky and maybe I should also include here two dishes in which the broccoli is cooked long and slow and then tossed around a pan with the pasta - Pasta with longer cooked broccoli - Deb Perelman/Smitten Kitchen and Broccoli repassati with olive oil, garlic and chilli from Rachel Roddy aa well as possibly two which emphasise the use of a whole head of broccoli, not just the florets - Tom Hunt's Italian-style whole broccoli pasta and Meera Sodha's Whole broccoli and zhoug spaghetti 

And last, but not least, the outliers. Those who go a step further either with a different cooking method, or different ingredients. Of course there are many more: Broccoli and ricotta conchiglione - Sylvia Colloca - delicious.; Pan-fried gnocchi, broccoli, toasted and fried egg - Dominic Smith - delicious.; Chicken and broccoli pasta bake - Coles - so quick because it uses mostly pre cooked ingredients - e.g. alfredo sauce and supermarket roast chicken; 5-ingredient chicken and broccoli pasta - Coles which includes boursin cheese and sun-dried tomatoes and Ottolenghi's Mac 'n' cheese with broccoli and Comté

So there you go. Long, long ago in ancient times when pasta was first a thing in Italy one of those nonnas down in Puglia thought she might cook some broccoli rabe with pasta and the garlic, chilli and anchovies she often used to toss into the pasta. Then somebody thought that if it works with broccoli rabe then it will work with broccoli - and what about pine nuts, or even sultanas. This and that is added, the broccoli is cooked this way and that way, different kinds of broccoli appear, and somebody thinks about cauliflower too. Why don't we bake it? Why don't we try a different kind of pasta? Why don't we make a kind of pesto with the broccoli, let's add some sausage, some chicken, some fish, cumin ...?

So go and buy some broccolini or cauliflower - broccoli is far too expensive at the moment - and play around. I almost forgot to mention one of my favourite orecchiette recipes from Beverley Sutherland Smith in which she adds chopped tomatoes to the mix and sprinkles with gorgeous crispy breadcrumbs. It's one of those recipes I return to again and again - alas not online. But I've got some broccolini leftover from our Easter feast, and some charred sprouts as well, so maybe I'll play around with them.

YEARS GONE BY

April 22

2024 - When I was 64 - well I thought I was

2023 - A quote

2022 - Why Ottolenghi and co are the tops

2021 - Fairy floss

2020 - Deleted

2019 - What to do with all that chocolate?

2018 - White wine glasses - another aspect of discrimination against women?

2017 - Nothing