Pasta with Purple Sprouting Broccoli - Sicilian style? #TriedItFree

If you read my husband's blog, you will know that he is passionate about growing - and eating - Purple Sprouting Broccoli (henceforth known as PSB). One slight snag with it, though, is that a huge amount tends to be ready all at once, and as we don't eat "meat and two veg" style meals every day, it can start to mount up in the fridge.

However Mark was recently told about a Sicilian dish that somebody had enjoyed, which combined pasta, PSB, sultanas, pine nuts, chilli and cheese. We had no idea what the proportions were, how the ingredients were used, or what the finished dish was supposed to look like, but when I was sent vouchers to try Tesco Finest Pasta through their scheme "The Orchard"  I thought it was a great time to test out the combination of ingredients and see what kind of a dish I could come up with.  I decided to try the Fusilli Lunghi, simply because they look so pretty! And here's what I made.....

Pasta with PSB

serves 2

150g pasta

120g purple sprouting broccoli
25g pine nuts
50g sultanas
 ½ tsp chilli flakes
2 cloves garlic, crushed
40g finely grated parmesan
½ tbs olive oil
10g butter
seasoning

cook the pasta as directed on the pack. Place the PSB in a steamer and cook above the pasta until just cooked – I like to cook it for 4-5 minutes.

While the pasta and PSB are cooking, heat the oil and butter in a small frying pan and toss the garlic, pine nuts, chilli flakes and sultanas in it until the pine nuts are lightly browned,  season and then set aside.

Drain and dish up the pasta, top with the PSB, spoon the pine nut mixture over it and sprinkle with Parmesan.

The result was absolutely delicious and is a dish we'll come back to again and again. Next time, I think I'll try adding a squeeze of lemon juice to the pine nut mixture. Very little effort but a great combination of flavours and textures. And we loved the pasta - it kept its shape well and didn't go to soft or mushy, which meant that it was very satisfying, as well as being the perfect shape for the dish.




#TriedItFree