A quick, delicious pasta dish of broccoli and anchovies created by the niece of close friend and it's equally delicious leftover iteration. Like her aunt's cooking, the fierce credibility of age-old Italian dishes is as the heart of her creation, albeit with a contemporary flair.
This is one of those fantastic "no effort" dishes. Created by Zoe Faltibà, niece of one of my closest friends, Angie Reed, let's be clear: unless you really are piggish, the pesto for this recipe will make at least two, probably three, meals' worth.
This recipe easily feeds two to three adults, but I already burped half of tonight's portion with fresh tagliatelle into Tupperware and bunged it in the fridge; an ideal lunch in the next couple of days...
If you want to deploy it in traditional primi piatti Italian multi-course dining, the sauce will readily serve 6 to 8 diners as a pasta course with a bit of extra pasta... unless you really are going fully classical and re-enacting Trimalchio's dinner party from Petronius..
" Trimalchio, vir, quis oblitus est brocolli?"
Also, images may be deceiving: for those who love chlorophyll, there's actually a lot of "green" in this dish, visually hidden as it may be by the colour of the capsaicins.
Shopping list
1 large fresh broccoli, hand-broken into florets; the stalk sliced into thick chunks
Garlic ; 2 or 3 cloves, very finely slice
1 large pointed red sweet pepper, thinly sliced
2 or 3 pepperoncini, very finely chopped
2 bay leaves
1 large white or brown onion, cubed
1 vegetable stock cube or jelly, diluted in a cup of boiling water
1 or 2 (to preference) 30g tin/s of responsibly sourced anchovies
Salt and black pepper to taste
A liberal dousing of extra virgin olive oil (4 tbspns, at least)
200g of ricotta cheese
6 tbspns finely grated parmesan or pecorino or other aged, hard cheese
Pasta of choice. For example, I opted for 150g of fresh tagliatelle, that more than adequately feeds 2 people
A generous dash of Worcestershire sauce (about 2 tbspns)
Cooking Method
Bring the hand-broken broccoli and stalks to the boil in salted water to which you've added diluted vegetable stock. Cover, reduce the heat and simmer until cooked
While the broccoli is cooking, heat the olive oil; sweat the garlic and onion. When soft, add the cubed sweet red pepper, bay leaves and pepperoncini. Stir regularly to prevent sticking. Add more olive oil if needed. Season with salt and pepper
Once the broccoli is cooked (i.e. a fork passes easily through the thickest parts of the stalks) lift from the pot using a sieve spoon. In other words, do NOT wait until it is overcooked and do NOT discard the liquid
Next,
To the saucepan in which you cooked the onions and peppers, add a little olive oil. Spoon in the broccoli and some of the ricotta. Blend with a hand-held blender
Slowly, add the remaining broccoli, ricotta and anchovies. Add Worcestershire sauce to taste. As the "pesto" becomes more finely blended, add the grated hard cheese, a spoon at a time, and blend in
And finally...
While blending the pesto, bring the water in which the broccoli was cooked back to the boil (adding more water if needed). Add your pasta of choice
Cook for the relevant number of minutes (depending on whether using fresh or dried) and then drain in a colander
Plate and spoon on the pesto, serving with a little bread dressed with balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil and a simple salad if desired
Accompaniments & Variations
For veggie, simply leave out the anchovies and Worcestershire sauce and substitute with 6 tbspns of Mushroom Ketchup. By far, my preferred is Geo Watkins Mushroom Ketchup. For those of you who haven't already see me wax lyrical about this gorgeous vegan/veggie nectar, it is the cook's go-to veggie ingredient for any recipe that calls for anchovies
For vegan, choose your own cheese alternatives: I don't have any tested options to date I can currently recommend
Pairings
I haven't got around to this yet, but I will work on it. However, tonight it worked really well with a boozy apfelschorle: apple juice, soda water and De Kuyper apple schnapps on ice. Go figure. Maybe it's because it's summer...
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