Pasta with broccoli

Last thursday was my birthday, well you know if you saw my post from friday about my birthday cake. Anyway I got a lot of presents almost all related to cooking and food From those presents I got 2 books, “Nigellisima” and “Jaime in 15 minutes”, what a lot of fantastic and easy recipes are in those books.

Well from the book from Jaime I made yesterday the pasta with broccoli, having a bit of my own twist. Of course it doesn’t take 15 minutes, but with a total work of 30 minutes you have a delicious and healthy meal.

My own version of the pasta with broccoli using as ingredients, quantities depending in how many people you are: as pasta I use conchiglie tricolore, then a bunch of fresh basil, 1 lemon, 2 garlic cloves, grated parmesan, broccoli and pine nuts. In the original recipe there is anchovy but since we don’t like so much I just added a lot of extra olive oil, salt and pepper in place. Also in the original there is dry spanish pepper, but I just use a bit of chili flakes.

My way of cooking it’s not exactly as in the book as well, I have a bit more time that just 15 minutes maybe that’s why it takes longer. Cook in a big pan the water with some salt, when starts boiling add the broccoli, after 3 or 4 minutes add the pasta and cook following the instructions on the package.

Then in a blender or a food processor, put together the basil, the lemon zest and and the lemon juice a bit of cooking water, the chopped garlic, the parmesan, olive oil, salt and pepper, then you could put a bit of the chili flakes. Mix until is nice and smooth.

In another pan rooster the pine nuts. Keep a bit of the cooking water of the pasta. To serve, put the pasta and broccoli in a serving bowl, add the basil sauce, the pine nuts and mix well adding some of the cooking water if the pasta is to dry. Grated a bit more parmesan and serve together with a nice salad, we also made the salad from the book. Really fantastic!