ROMANESCO BROCCOLI WITH PASTA
Like other forms of broccoli and cabbage, the noble romanesco pairs perfectly with pasta. I like to use the smaller florets for that purpose and use a diminutive pasta shape like ditalini—little tubes, or mezze rigatoni. My simple method for pasta with broccoli romanesco can be adapted to include other ingredients, but in its most basic format, garlic, olive oil and bit of peperoncino is really all you need.
Blanch the florets in plenty of boiling, salted water until they just turn tender, and shock them in an ice bath to stop the cooking. Sauté sliced garlic and a bit of crushed red pepper flakes in olive oil. You can add a little tomato paste to the pan for an extra layer of flavor. Add the broccoli romanesco florets and sauté briefly, make sure the florets are well coated with olive oil, then toss everything with the al dente pasta and a splash of the pasta cooking water. Grate over plenty of Pecorino Romano off the heat. It isn’t often that something so weird looking becomes something so delicious.
Note:
Pecorino is the name of a family of hard Italian cheeses made from ewe’s milk
Peperoncini (or pepperoncini), are a variety of the species Capsicum annuum. While called peperoncini in American English, peppers of this particular kind, in Italy, are called friggitello (plural friggitelli) or more generally peperone (plural peperoni) like other sweet varieties of peppers, while the term peperoncini (singular peperoncino) is used for hotter varieties of chili peppers.
Photo and recipe by Sabrina Merli
