Pasta Con Broccoli is a simple pasta dish made with broccoli, lemon, crushed red pepper, garlic, and parmesan. As with most pasta dishes, it’s the simple ones, the ones with a handful of ingredients, that are the best. And this recipe for Pasta Con Broccoli is no exception. The pop of flavour from the lemon and red pepper brings the broccoli to life and makes this the kind of dish you’ll return to. So, what are we waiting for? Let’s get to it!
Preparing The Broccoli
In total, you want four cups of broccoli florets. I’m sure you could use frozen broccoli for this, but I opted for fresh as it is the middle of summer, and this stuff is everywhere. When cutting broccoli or cauliflower, cut from the bottom. Only cut through the stem to prevent a big mess and keep your florets intact. Cut the broccoli into bite-sized pieces. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, add the broccoli and cook for four minutes. Scoop the broccoli out of the water and set it aside. Save the water and use it for cooking your pasta for a little extra flavour.
Additional Pasta Con Broccoli Ingredients
Other than the broccoli and pasta, the ingredients for this recipe are crushed red pepper flakes, thinly sliced garlic, salt, parmesan cheese, butter, and olive oil. See the recipe at the end of this post for the measurements. Organize the ingredients before making the pasta because things will happen quickly once you get going.
Cooking The Pasta Con Broccoli
Bring the large pot of water back to a boil and set a timer according to the instructions on the package. Once the timer hits five minutes, put a large skillet on medium-high heat. Let it heat up, then add the olive oil and butter. Once the butter starts to foam, add the garlic. Cook for one minute, add the crushed red pepper flakes and cook for another thirty seconds. Put the broccoli in the pan, and sauté for two minutes. Add a cup of the pasta water and the lemon zest to the pan, put it back on the heat and bring it to a boil and reduce it by half its volume. Drain the pasta, and add it to the pan. Toss in the parmesan cheese and salt. Mix well. Take the pan off the heat again, add the lemon juice, toss, taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper as needed.
Wrap-Up
Pasta Con Broccoli should be a little creamy, a little lemony, a little spicy, and a lot flavourful. This is the perfect weeknight pasta dish because it comes together so quickly. You can also add some shredded chicken, cooked salmon, or tuna to the dish to bulk it up. This is definitely worth a try. Broccoli done in a similar fashion to this pasta dish makes a great side dish. You can find my recipe for Roasted Lemon & Parmesan Broccoli here.
Thank you for coming to Chef’s Notes. I hope you’ve enjoyed this post. The mission of Chef’s Notes is to share over twenty years of professional cooking experience. If you’d like to be a part of that mission, you can share this post on Facebook or Pinterest or leave a comment below and rate the recipe. You can also subscribe to the Chef’s Notes Patreon by clicking here. You’ll get access to exclusive content, including live streams, monthly cooking videos and more. And remember to subscribe to the Chef’s Notes newsletter.
Ingredients
- 4 cups broccoli
- 2 tbsp garlic, sliced
- 1/2 tsp chili flakes
- 1 lemon juice and zest
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 cup parmesan
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp butter
- 410 g box rotini pasta
- 1 cup pasta water
Instructions
- Cut the broccoli into florets.
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the broccoli and cook for four minutes. Remove the broccoli from the pot reserving the water.
- Add the pasta to the water and set a timer according to the package instructions.
- Once the pasta timer reaches five minutes, put a large skillet on medium-high heat.
- Add the olive oil and butter to the skillet. Once the butter starts to foam, add the garlic and cook for one minute. Add the red pepper flakes and cook for thirty seconds. Add the broccoli to the pan and sauté for two minutes.
- Add one cup of pasta water to the skillet along with the zest of one lemon. Bring the pasta water to a boil and cook until it has reduced by half its volume.
- Drain the pasta and add it to the skillet along with the parmesan cheese and salt. Toss the pasta to mix. Add the lemon juice, toss the pasta again and taste. Adjust the seasoning as needed with salt and pepper. Serve.
What would you serve with that to round out the meal?
Hi Janet, thank you for your question. It would make a great side dish with chicken, pork, or salmon.