Orecchiette e Broccoli

Ingredients

(for three portions)

  • 300g Orecchiette or whatever
  • a head of broccoli
  • a medium potato
  • garlic
  • chilli(es)
  • salt
  • pepper
  • olive oil

Prep

Wash the broccoli thoroughly and cut it into small florets. Finely chop the stem.

Peel the potato and chop it into small (1cm or thereabouts) cubes.

Instructions

Roughly chop the chillies, peel and smash the garlic and put everything in a pan. Add a tablespoon or two of olive oil and turn up the heat to medium. After a minute or two, add the broccoli. Give it a few minutes in the oil, then add a cup of hot water and cover the pot with a lid. Let it cook in the steam for minimum five minutes before you check on it.

In the meantime, bring a large pot of water to the boil, salt it and add both potato and pasta at more or less the same time (depends what shapes you are using, if the pasta is fresh you'll need to give the potatoes a head start).

Add some salt and a generous amount of black pepper to the broccoli. Keep an eye on it while it's steaming, if it needs more water you can use some from the pasta pot. It should cook for a total of 10-15 mins, depending on the size you've cut it. If you have a blender, you may want to take out a few florets and blitz them together with the garlic cloves and some more pasta water, and then add them back into the pan.

Once the pasta is boiled, add it to the pan, mix everything thoroughly, add some oil and serve.