Orecchiette with broccoli sauce and fennel salad
Day 1 Orecchiette with broccoli sauce and fennel salad
Yesterday was my very first time to write a blog post. I struggled with cooking and taking pictures at the same time. With cooking, editing the post, and uploading photos - I was able to finish only one recipe. So here is the follow-up from last night’s cooking!
Orecciette with broccoli sauce is one of my most favorite pasta dishes and I often cook at home. It’s very simple and easy! I cook with sausage meat sometimes, but I did a vegan version this time. (See note below for the with sausage version)
Orecchiette with broccoli sauce (2 servings if you have a main dish)
Orecchiette pasta 200g (7 oz)
Broccoli head 2/3
Water 2 litters (for boiling)
Salt 2 Tablespoons (for boiling)
Olive oil 3 Tablespoons
Garlic 1
Anchovy paste 1 teaspoon
Red pepper flake a pinch
Parmigiano cheese
Black pepper
Directions
Cut off the stem part of the broccoli and separate the florets. Leave broccoli in water for 10 minutes and drain. We’ll use only florets for this dish, but you can use the broccoli stem for something else. (I just sliced, boiled and ate as a snack this time :))
Chop garlic finely.
In a medium sized pan, add olive oil, garlic, red chili pepper flake and anchovy paste.
Turn the heat to medium / low and cook garlic and other ingredients slowly. Don’t burn the garlic!
Boil water in a large pot. Basically 1 litter of water per 100g of pasta. Once the water starts to boil, add 2 Tbsps of salt and start boiling broccoli and pasta at the same time. (You can cook broccoli and pasta separately like I did this time as shown in the picture)
After 5 minutes, using a mesh skimmer/strainer, remove the broccoli out from the boiling water and add to the pan (step 4).
Press down the broccoli with a spatula and make it into a paste.
2 minutes before the cooking recommendation time on the pasta box, scoop all the orecchiette with a mesh skimmer and add to the sauce. Don’t throw out the water!
Add 4 Tbsps of the boiled pasta water to the pan and cook with medium heat until the pasta absorbs all the liquid.
Taste and add salt if needed.
Serve on a plate and sprinkle grated parmigiano cheese and black pepper on top.
Note
If you want to add sausage to this pasta, remove meat from the sausage case and using your fingers, separate the meat into small pieces, around the same size as the orecchiette. Saute in the pan in step 4, and then add the broccoli after. The rest of the recipe is the same. You can use any type of fresh sausage, mild Italian, spicy, breakfast sausage etc.
Fennel salad
Since I found a bulb of fennel still not sold out at the grocery store, I added this fennel salad to our Italian style dinner. I held an Italian cooking class a couple of years ago for my Japanese speaking students (I usually teach Japanese cooking but sometimes teach other cuisines upon request). One of the items was zucchini and fennel salad. Zucchini was unfortunately all sold out yesterday so I decided to use butter lettuce as a substitute. This is a super quick, easy and refreshing dish :)
Fennel salad (2 servings)
Butter lettuce 1/2
Fennel bulb 1/2
Lemon juice 1/2
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt
Directions
Rinse butter lettuce under cold water and remove mud/dirt from the leaf.
Rip lettuce into bite size pieces gently with the tips of your fingers and drain water. (If you have a salad spinner, that can remove excess water from your salad leaves without damage.)
Cut the root end from fennel and cut in half lengthwise. Cut off the tough core of the fennel and slice crosswise very thinly.
If your fennel comes with leaves, chop finely and combine with the sliced bulb.
Squeeze the juice from the lemon. Combine sliced fennel, lemon juice, olive oil and salt and mix.
Cover and chill in the fridge until serving.
Right before serving, gently mix butter lettuce and fennel together in a large bowl.
Note
If you are using zucchini, slice thinly lengthwise with a peeler, combine with fennel and marinate with the same seasoning.