Orecchiette
Why I Love This Recipe
This is Jamie Oliver’s Broccoli Orecchiette recipe. To be quite honest, I leave out the anchovies! Feel free to do the same and it is still tasty.
Ingredients You'll Need
2 large heads broccoli
2 large cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
8 anchovy fillets
2-4 small dried chilies crumbled, to your taste
4 good knobs butter
1 lb dried pasta (shells, penne or rigatone work well)
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
2 good handfuls of freshly grated parmesan (to taste) or feta in cubes
Directions
Using small knife trim round broc to remove dark green flowers from the main stalks, and put them to one side. Peel the stalk (I don’t bother), and throw the dry end away. Finely chop the stalk and put into a large pan with the garlic, anchovies, chilies and half the butter. Cover with a lid and cook slowly for 8-10 mins while you cook your pasta in boiling salted water. This should take about the same length of time.
Something I (and Jamie!) like to do which is nice is to cook the broccoli flowers with the pasta for the last 4 mins – this makes them soft enough to eat but leaves them with great colour and texture.
Drain the pasta and broc, saving a little of the cooking water, then toss it into the other pan. Remove the pan from the heat. Season to taste with salt, pepper, the rest of the butter and a large handful of parmesan (or feta cubes). Mix well, adding a little of the cooking water if necessary to loosen the pasta and make it shine. Serve immediately, sprinkled with the rest of the parmesan.
