Totally simple recipe here, nothing too fancy, but some great flavors and easy to prepare.  These are the sorts of recipes that I love to make when I don’t have a lot of time on my hands, because I can literally have them ready in 10 minutes, and it’s a wholesome, satisfying meal.  I add the egg for some protein, and you could certainly add in some bacon or other protein as well, but I decided to keep it simple.

The key to sauteing broccoli I’ve found is to cook it properly.  You want to start it off over high heat to give it a good sear, then lower the heat and cook it slowly to tenderize it, sometimes with some liquid like wine or stock.  I also love to cook the stems, and can’t stand to see people throwing them out.  I think they have a fantastic consistency and merit using…so next time, try cooking them in your dish and don’t throw them away!  Here’s an idea for your next couple stalks of broccoli:

• 2 medium sized stalks of broccoli – florets chopped and stems roughly chopped
• 1 medium white onion – thinly sliced lengthwise
• 1 egg

• 2 cloves of garlic – smashed and diced
• 1/3 – 1/2 cup of dry white wine – something you would drink
• 1-2 Tbsp. white wine or champagne vinegar
• 2-3 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
• Kosher salt to taste
• Freshly ground black pepper
• (optional) Crushed red pepper flakes
• (optional) A few lardons (thin slices of bacon)

Pretty easy assembly here – start with prepping the broccoli, making sure it’s chopped along with the onions and garlic.  Start with a saute pan over medium/high heat and add a good glug of olive oil – enough to coat HALF of the bottom of the pan.  Add in the onions and broccoli and season with some salt.  Cook over the higher heat for a 2-3 minutes and then add in the garlic.

Stir frequently to make sure the veg doesn’t burn.  Once the vegetables become rather tender, lower the heat a little bit and add in the wine.  You can estimate all of the above measurements by the way – you’re looking to add around a small glass of wine into the pan.

Once the wine has evaporated, likely 4-5 minutes, kick the heat back up a bit and then crack the egg into the pan.  Season with a little more salt and pepper and then stir the egg vigorously into the rest of the dish.  Finish the dish with the vinegar and a little bit more olive oil and adjust the seasoning to taste.  Serve immediately and enjoy!

I set out to make some sort of simple pasta with a hint of some Spanish Manchego cheese.  Most of the time a little cheese typically goes on top of a finished pasta that we concoct from time to time – but I want to make this a little bit different.  So I decided to start with a roux and add the cheese after the roux had turned into a bechamel.  Of course, I didn’t want to make Mac and Cheese (this would have been easy with this method), so I decided to also add some spicy red chili flake and chopped canned tomatoes to the sauce before adding some of it to my sauteed vegetables.

This was totally experimental, the sort of food that I love to cook – no recipe, no ideas from other blogs, just some organic vegetables and some pasta with a sauce (that I was actually not expecting to turn out well at all).  But the result was surprisingly delicious.  Part of the credit has to go to the organic ingredients from Boston organics.

Overall, a pretty simple interpretation, good for weeknight dinner, but good enough to serve to guests as well.  I’d advise against trying to enhance it with meat or anything though – keep it simple and vegetarian, you’ll like it I promise.  Here’s what to do:

For the vegetables:

• 8-10 button or crimini mushrooms – cut in thick slices
• Steps and leaves from a bunch of Swiss Chard – chopped
• 1 medium onion – large dice
• 1 large head of broccoli – florets chopped
• 1 tsp. red chili flakes (more if you want it really spicy)
• 4-5 cloves fresh garlic – diced
• 1 lb. dried spaghetti or linguine – whatever you prefer
• Olive oil
• Salt and fresh ground black pepper

For the sauce:

• 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup of milk (or more depending on how think you want your sauce)
• ~4 oz. Manchego cheese – grated finely
• 1 tsp. red chili flakes
• 1 Tbsp. dried basil leaves
• 1 can diced canned tomatoes
• Salt and pepper

Place a large pot of water to boil over high heat for the pasta.  Start by cooking the vegetables – add a pan over medium heat to the stove and add some olive oil to the pan.  Add in the onions a broccoli first, season with a little salt and toss to combine.  Cook down and add the mushrooms with a pinch more salt.  Add the garlic and chard next and cook down over lower heat to caramelize the veg for 10-15 minutes.

While the vegetables are cooking, start with the sauce, but make sure you’re in good shape with the veg, as the sauce will require constant attention to get right.  Start with a whisk and a small-ish saucepan over low heat and melt the butter.  Add the flour to the butter and whisk to combine.  From here you want to cook the roux over low heat until it becomes a little darker color – stirring constantly to make sure it doesn’t burn.

Add the milk next and stir quickly – now you’ve got yourself a basic bechamel sauce.  Season with the salt and pepper to taste and add in the grated cheese and stir vigorously to incorporate.  Add the chili flakes and basil and eventually the tomatoes and mix to combine.  Bring to a decent heat and then add most of the sauce to the vegetables and stir to combine.  Cook the pasta (salting the water first of course) then add some of the pasta water to the sauce (around 1/3 cup of it – you want to thin it out some here.  Drain and add the pasta to the sauce and mix to combine.  Serve immediately and enjoy!

This is one of those ‘I don’t have a lot of time or motivation to cook’ dinners that really satisfies.  It’s really simple to prepare and tastes the same way, but there are some tricks you can do to make the taste really good.  This is also one of my favorite ways to utilize broccoli stems, as opposed to just the florets (the stems are really good too! Especially peeled and roughly chopped).

The process of preparing this dish is also somewhat disconnected.  As soon as I got home from work, I put the garlic in the oven to roast, then waited around and hour before doing the rest of it.  Trust me, the garlic is worth the pain in the ass wait – and is the most important part of this dish.  Give it some time and bring it to an awesome gooey temperature with even a little crust on the outside.  If you love garlic, go with the full two heads and incorporate all of the cloves.  You can tone it down from there, but I recommend going full throttle, it’s really good and will sort of melt into the rest of the dish.

I kind of overcooked the broccoli a little bit, but hey, at least the stems held up and were good.  If you decide to blanch the broccoli before incorporating it, just don’t let it go for too long.  Here’s what to do:

• 1/2 – 3/4 lb dried farfalle pasta
• 1 large head of broccoli, florets separated and stems peeled and roughly chopped
• 2 small heads fresh garlic
• 1 medium onion
• 10-12 small crimini or other mushrooms – sliced
• 3 or 4 small sun dried tomatoes – diced small
• 1.5 Tbsp. red pepper flakes
• Juice from 1/3 – 1/2 of a lemon
• 1/2 cup shredded fresh (and good quality) Parmesano-Reggiano
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
• 2 slices of bacon (optional)

As I said before, start by roasting the garlic first! Preheat the oven to 400 F. Cut the heads off of the garlic and rip a small piece of tin foil off of the roll.  Place the garlic heads in the tin foil and drizzle a bit of olive oil on top before enclosing the heads in the foil.  Toss the garlic in the oven and let it go for an hour before removing it and make sure it’s soft and cooked through.  Carefully remove the cloves from the paper (don’t just squeeze it out) and set aside for later.

Next, heat a small pot of boiling water and add the broccoli for a minute of two, while prepping an ice bath at the same time.  Remove the broccoli and add it immediately to the ice bath.  Remove it once it’s cooled and set aside.

Next, create a simple saute in a skillet over medium heat by adding in some olive oil (optionally, you could also cook the veg in a little bacon fat too if you wanted to) and then the vegetables in this order: onions (cook for 3 minutes), mushrooms (cook for another 5-7 minutes), next add the broccoli and garlic and stir to combine.  Add in the red pepper and sun dried tomatoes last and lower the heat a bit before finally adding in the lemon juice.

In the same water as your cooked the broccoli, bring it back to a boil and add a decent amount of salt and the pasta.  Cook the farfalle until al dente (this type of pasta takes a little longer to cook than most!).  Then drain the pasta and add it to the vegetables – you shouldn’t need any pasta water here.  Finally, add in a little more olive oil, the Parmesan cheese and serve (top with a little more cheese as you want).  Enjoy!