Broccoli and Anchovy Orecchiette
A quick and easy pasta recipe from Jamie Oliver, this delicious Broccoli and Anchovy Orecchiette is a midweek saviour. It's packed with flavour, and made with budget-friendly ingredients that are readily available.
Introduction
You must try this one. Penne and rigatoni are fine in place of orecchiette – and widely available everywhere.
Ingredients
| 2 | large heads of broccoli |
| 2 | large cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped |
| 8 | anchovy fillets |
| 2–4 | small dried red chillies, crumbled, to your taste |
| 4 good knobs | butter |
| 455g/1lb | dried orecchiette |
| Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper | |
| 2 good handfuls | grated Parmesan cheese, to taste |
Method
Using a small knife, trim round the broccoli to remove the dark green flowers from the main stalks and put them to one side. Peel the stalk, trim off the dry end and throw this away. Finely chop the stalk and put into a large pan with the garlic, anchovies, chillies and half the butter. Cover with a lid and cook slowly for 8–10 minutes while you cook your pasta in salted boiling water. This should take about the same length of time – check the packet. Something I like to do which is slightly different (but better, I’d like to think) is to cook the broccoli flowers with the pasta for the last 4 minutes – this makes them soft enough to eat but leaves them with great colour and texture.
Drain the pasta and broccoli, saving a little of the cooking water, then toss 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. 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.
