Pasta Night

I love the versatility of pasta. You can dress it in a wide variety of sauces, bake it, and create many types of cuisine with it. I try to keep my pasta consumption to a minimum if I want to maintain my weight loss. When cravings do call for pasta? I like to keep it simple.

I chose to make orecchiette with broccoli sauce, a recipe found in the Rachel Ray magazine. I couldn't wait to try this out.

Ingredients:

2 large broccoli crowns and stems
1 bag of orecchiette (I used Pastene and it was amazing)
4 cloves of garlic minced
1 tbsp of Olive Oil
Lemon zest
1 cup of water
1/2 cup of Reserved pasta water
1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese grated (more if you'd like)

Chop the broccoli and try not to sing the song from Saturday Night Live. I know I always do.

Remember to save the stems, that will be used to make the sauce.

Peel the tougher outside portion of the broccoli stems and finely chop them.

Boil water and add pasta. Cook according to package minus 4 minutes.

Add the broccoli florets to the water and cook for 3 minutes, then drain. I do this over a large measuring cup to reserve the cooking liquid. Or if you have a fancy pasta pot, you can use that too : )

In a large saute pan, add olive oil and cook up the broccoli stems and garlic for about 2 minutes.

Add 1 cup water and cook for 5 minutes.

Grate your Parmesan and add your broccoli, pasta, lemon zest, reserved pasta water and cheese to the pan. Toss around to coat the pasta and broccoli and cook down the sauce a little bit.

Then you are done! Serve it with a nice side salad and maybe a slice of bread.