Pasta and Broccoli.

Double take: a twice-cooked broccoli recipe direct from Rome | Life and style | The Guardian
From Five Quarters: Recipes and Notes from a Kitchen in Rome by Rachel Roddy.
- Winner of the André Simon Food Book Award 2015.
'Of course I thought Rome was glorious, but I didn't want to stay. A month, three at most, then I'd take a train back to Sicily to finish the clockwise journey I'd interrupted, before moving even further southwards...'

Instead, captivated by the exhilarating life of Testaccio, the wedge-shaped quarter of Rome that centres round the old slaughterhouse and the bustling food market, Rachel decided to rent a flat and live there. Thus began an Italian adventure that's turned into a brand new life. FIVE QUARTERS charts a year in Rachel's small kitchen, shopping, cooking, eating and writing, capturing a uniquely domestic picture of life in this vibrant, charismatic city.

Combining Rachel's love of Italian food and cooking with a strong nostalgia for home and memories of growing up in England, this is a cookbook to read in bed as well as to use in the kitchen.

A much-loved dish in Rome, pasta e broccoli is often made with broccolo Romanesco (Romanesco cauliflower), a curiously beautiful, lime-green vegetable with intricate clusters of closely packed florets.
Cooked Romanesco has the texture and feel of good, creamy cauliflower but the taste of broccoli.
Romanesco is best, but I have also made successful versions of pasta e broccoli with ordinary broccoli, purple-sprouting broccoli and cauliflower.

Broccolo Romanesco and Potato Masher.

Serves 4
Ingredients
1 large head Romanesco cauliflower, or broccoli
Salt, to taste
2 cloves garlic
1 small, red fresh, or dried, chili
6 Tbsp. olive oil
14 ounces short pasta, such as penne or rigatoni
1/3 cup grated pecorino or Parmesan, plus extra to serve
Directions
Pull away the tough outer leaves, cut away the hard stem and break the Romanesco, or broccoli, into small florets.
Bring a large pot of water to a fast boil, add salt and stir; then add the florets.
Cook for 6 to 8 minutes, or until tender, which will depend on how fresh the Romanesco is.
Use a slotted spoon to lift the florets into a colander.

Meanwhile, peel and gently crush the garlic with the back of a knife and chop the chili.
Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan, add the garlic and chili and cook gently, until the garlic is lightly golden and fragrant.
Do not allow the garlic to brown, or it will be ruinously bitter.
Remove the garlic.

Bring the same water you cooked the Romanesco in back to a fast boil and add the pasta.
While the pasta is cooking, add the Romanesco to the frying pan and stir so that each floret is glistening.
Add salt, stir again and mash the florets gently with the back of a wooden spoon (or Potato Masher) so they break up.
Either drain the pasta, saving some of the cooking water, and tip it into the Romanesco pan; or, better still, use a slotted spoon to lift the pasta into it.
Throw over the Parmesan or pecorino and stir vigorously so that the pasta mixes with the Romanesco.
Serve straight from the pan or with sausages, piled on garlic-rubbed toast or topped with a fried egg.

Broccoli Soup.

300 gr  broccoli (1 crown broccoli)
1 leeks, cleaned and trimmed 
1/2 large onion
1 medium shallots
1-2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
¼ medium apple, diced (optional)

450 ml chicken broth or bone broth
1 tablespoon curry powder (Curry powder is usually a mixture of turmeric, chilli powder, ground coriander, ground cumin, ground ginger and pepper)
Kosher salt
Freshly-ground black pepper

Basic curry powder:
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp cayenne/ chilli powder

Melt the butter over medium-high heat in a small pot or Dutch oven.
Add the onion, garlic and pepper to the pan and sauté, stirring occasionally, until the onion is softened, about 5-6 minutes.
Meanwhile, chop the broccoli into florets.
Remove and discard woody ends of the broccoli stems. Peel the stems and then chop into 2.5cm/1-inch chunks.

Once the onion is softened, add the broccoli, veggie broth, salt and pepper to the pot.
Bring to a boil.
Reduce the heat to a simmer, cover with the lid slightly cracked and let cook until the broccoli is fork tender, about 10 minutes.

Remove the pot from the heat. Use an immersion blender (or food processor) to puree the mixture until smooth.
Season with additional salt and pepper to taste.

This basic vegetable soup can be made with any combination of fresh or frozen vegetables, so the soup will taste a little different each time.
– 8 parsnips
1 leeks, cleaned and trimmed 
1/2 large onion
1 medium shallots
1-2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed

– 2 teaspoons of cumin seeds
– 1 teaspoon of turmeric
- 2 teaspoons of ground ginger
– 2 teaspoons of apple cider vinegar
– 2 teaspoons of chilli flakes
– 1 teaspoon of mustard seeds

Broccoli paste.

The Crisper Whisperer: Alice Waters' Long-Cooked Broccoli | Serious Eats
A food paste - a spread or a purées - food made from already cooked ingredients, typically produced by mixing dry ingredients with a liquid.
"Every broccoli has its stem.
But broccoli stems taste good.
If you cook your broccoli with aromatics like garlic and ginger, or if you infuse it with savory sauces, the stems can taste really good, even better than the florets.
Broccoli stems are not glamorous, but they are meant to be eaten.

700 grams broccoli
1/4 cup olive oil
6 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
Pinch of dried chili flakes
A few good pinches of salt
1 cup water
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
2 to 4 tablespoons grated parmesan or pecorino cheese, optional

1.To prepare the broccoli, cut the florets into small pieces.
Trim the ends off the stems.
Peel the stems with a paring knife and thinly slice.

2.In a medium pot with a heavy bottom, heat the olive oil over medium heat.
Add the broccoli, garlic, chili flakes and salt.
Cook, stirring occasionally, for a few minutes, until the garlic is very fragrant.
Add the water and bring to a boil.

3.Reduce the heat to maintain a bare simmer, cover the pot, and cook, stirring occasionally until the broccoli is very tender and falling apart, about an hour.
You may need to add more water if the broccoli starts to dry out.
After an hour or so, stir vigorously with a spoon to create the texture of a coarse purée.
Stir in the lemon juice and zest and the cheese if using.
Serve as a bed for grilled fish, shellfish or chicken, as a side dish, mixed with brown rice or pasta, or as a topping for crostini."

Baby Broccoli Frittata with Feta.

Baby Broccoli Frittata with Feta | Naturally Ella
Baby Broccoli Frittata with Feta

Serves: 2 to 3
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ cup thinly sliced red onion
4 to 5 stalks baby broccoli, ends trimmed
6 large eggs
⅓ cup whole milk
½ teaspoon black pepper
¼ teaspoon salt
½ ounce crumbled feta
Preheat oven to 220˚C.
Heat an 8" oven-safe skillet over medium, add ½ tablespoon olive oil followed by the onions.
Cook the onions, stirring often, until tender and beginning to brown, 6 to 8 minutes.
Remove and set aside.

Add the remaining ½ tablespoon olive oil to the pan.
Place the baby broccoli spears into the pan and cook until the green brightens and the ends are browning, turning occasionally, 4 to 5 minutes.
Remove from pan.
Whisk together the eggs, milk, black pepper, and salt.
Pour into the pan and cook for roughly 5 minutes, just long enough for the bottom to set.
Lay the cooked baby broccoli on top of the eggs then sprinkle with onions and feta.
Transfer pan to the oven and bake until the frittata has puffed and top is beginning to brown, 15 to 18 minutes.

The Best Broccoli.

The Best Broccoli of Your Life - Amateur Gourmet:

"You preheat the oven to 220C.

Take broccoli - just two large bunches, cut into florets (but relatively big ones.)
Here’s the key: if you wash them - dry them THOROUGHLY.

I saw an episode of Julia Child cooking with Jacques Pepin once when Pepin revealed he doesn’t wash a chicken before putting it in a hot oven: “The heat kills all the germs,” he said in his French accent. “If bacteria could survive that oven, it deserves to kill me.”
By that logic, then, I didn’t wash my broccoli; I wanted it to get crispy and brown. If you’re nervous, though, just wash and dry it obsessively.

Now, it’s easy.
Put the broccoli on a cookie sheet.
Toss with olive oil, salt and pepper. (5 Tbs olive oil, 1 1/2 tsps kosher salt, 1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper, but I just eyeballed it.)
Now add 4 garlic cloves that are peeled and sliced and toss them in too.

Roast in the oven 20 to 25 minutes, until “crisp-tender and the tips of some of the florets are browned.
I shook the pan around a bit as it went, but not sure that’s necessary.
When it’s done, take it out of the oven–and here’s where it gets really good–zest a lemon over the broccoli, squeeze the lemon juice over the broccoli,
- add 1.5 Tbs more olive oil,
- 3 Tbs toasted pine nuts (I left those out),
- 1/3 cup of freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

She also has you add 2 Tbs julienned fresh basil, but I left that out too.

You won’t miss it: the magic combo of the crispy broccoli, the garlic, the lemon and the cheese will make this the best broccoli of your life.
I guarantee it; you will go ga-ga over it. I’m so ga-ga over it that I would seriously consider a trip right now to the store just so I could make this for lunch.
Broccoli for lunch?
After trying this, you’ll never want to eat anything else for breakfast, lunch or dinner ever again."

Similar recipe:
- Creamy Kale Soup.
- Kale Chips with Sea Salt & Smoked Paprika.

'via Blog this'

Broccoli, Pea, and Basil Soup.

Warm Diet Essentials: Broccoli, Pea, and Basil Soup - Q by Equinox:
London's cooking darlings, the Hemsley sisters, authors of The Art of Eating Well, love a pea soup, and for this take, they incorporated broccoli stalks to balance out the sweet starchiness.

Ingredients:
2 tbsp. ghee
2 large onions, roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves, diced
3 celery sticks, roughly chopped
Large pinch of dried oregano
80 gr fresh basil (pull the leaves from the stalks and roughly chop the stalks)
1.5 kg broccoli, slice the stalks and roughly chop the florets
1.5 litres bone broth or vegetable stock
500 gr frozen peas
Juice of 1 lemon
Extra virgin olive oil or flaxseed oil, to serve
Parmesan, sea salt and black pepper

Directions:
1. Heat the ghee in a saucepan with a lid over a low heat and gently fry the onion for 10 minutes until soft, stirring occasionally.

2. Add the garlic, celery, oregano, and chopped basil stalks and stir.

3. Add the broccoli, broth, and a large pinch of salt and pepper and stir.

4. Bring to a medium simmer, pop on the lid, and simmer gently for 10–15 minutes until the broccoli stalks and florets are just tender (you don’t want to overcook the broccoli).

5. Remove from the heat and add the peas, basil leaves, and half the lemon juice.

6. Blend the soup (in batches if needs be), adding a little more liquid if it’s too thick. Check for seasoning and finish with an extra squeeze of lemon juice if needed.

7. Serve each bowl with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil or flaxseed oil and a shaving of parmesan.

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Lemon Spiced Purple Sprouting Broccoli.

Purple Sprouting Broccoli infused in Lemony Spices, cook with the changing seasons from Shaheen.

Looks Messy, but Really Delicious!

"Serves 4

Ingredients
400g purple sprouting broccoli
2 tablespoon olive oil
2 - 4 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon red chilli flakes or to taste
Thumb size piece of fresh root ginger, peeled and finely sliced
1 teaspoon freshly ground coriander seeds
Juice from half lemon
Method
Steam the broccoli until tender. Set aside.
Heat the oil in a wide pan, add the garlic, chilli flakes and coriander and fry over low heat for a few minutes until the garlic is tender and the oil infused with the spices.  Then stir in the ginger and lemon and cook for a couple of minutes, before stirring in the broccoli.  Heat for a few minutes until the broccoli is coated in the spicy oil.  Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.  Serve immediately. Or toss it through some couscous, bulgar wheat or pasta and enjoy."