Vegetarian mains
Broccoli pasta sauce
This recipe uses cooked broccoli, so it’s a great way of using up leftovers if you have them. If not, you will need to steam the head of broccoli first. Although cooking down broccoli seems like a strange concept, the outcome is thick and creamy, making it a great sauce for pasta.
Cook's notes
We would recommend pairing with a shape of pasta that cradles the sauce like conchiglie, orecchiette and rigatoni.
Ingredients
- 1 head cooked broccoli, including the stalk
- olive oil
- 3 garlic cloves, peeled & finely chopped
- 1 chilli, deseeded & finely chopped
- 1 tsp miso paste
- 1 lemon, zested
- 1 tbsp rosemary, finely chopped (or use thyme)
- 250ml vegetable or chicken stock
- handful of Parmesan, or vegetarian alternative, grated
Method
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Step 1
Heat enough olive oil to coat the bottom of a medium saucepan and add the chopped garlic. Roughly chop the broccoli.
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Step 2
Once you can hear and smell the garlic cooking, add in the chopped broccoli and stir. Next add the stock and miso and simmer for 10-15 minutes, regularly stirring and crushing the broccoli with a spoon to break it down. You want the broccoli to melt down into a sauce and thicken up; if the mixture looks a little dry, add more water. If you’ve got your pasta cooking at the same time, pasta cooking water works well to thicken the sauce because of the gluten, and really helps the sauce stick to the pasta, so add a little of this.
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Step 3
Once you have achieved the desired consistency, add in the lemon zest and chopped herbs and a handful of grated Parmesan - this will help to thicken the sauce as well.
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Step 4
Stir through cooked pasta until it’s fully coated and spoon onto plates. Finish by sprinkling the chopped chilli over the top and grate over a little more Parmesan. If you want more citrus, a squeeze of lemon juice over the top would also work nicely.