pasta con broccoli leaves from the (subarctic) garden
Confession: This year's broccoli plants - Bonarda and Piracicaba varieties - were very much on the low side when it came to growing actual crowns in our new garden this past summer. It was quite a change from our massive heads of broccoli the summer before, across the borough.
Alas, the greens were enormous and gorgeous - and I adored them all the same.Â
You win some, you lose some, you tweak the placements and varieties next year (& appreciate the broccoli when it appears in your CSA even more), and you make some pasta with those magnificent green-and-purple-hued uh, greens.
Thanks to my Italian American + New Yorker heritage, I turn to an unceasing amount of garlic – and I rarely blanch the hearty greens I’m using. Gasp! The exception to that rule is when they’re on the tough side, such as when it’s later in the season, or they’re coming across state (and another country….) lines and look rather intense. In that case, I’ll either run them under a quick dose of hot pasta water in a colander, or even sit them below the drained pasta when it comes into play.
If we're talking fresher greens, such as those then-peak-summer broccoli leaves, kale, tender chicory, or broccoli raab (be still my heart), I'll opt for no blanching whatsoever. Perhaps a little pasta water when the sauce is coming together - that Italian cooking mantra.
Recipe + notes follow.
Pasta con Broccoli Leaves
Adapted from The Top One Hundred Pasta Sauces by Diane Seed - and my late mother’s kitchen
Serves 2-4 depending on serving size, easily doubled
Ingredients:
5 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced or minced
2 cups of fresh broccoli leaves, thinly shredded or other desired greens//NOTE: remove the stalks if too thick to easily slice)
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
Generous pinch of crushed chile flakes - preferably Calabrian
1-2 tablespoons of white wine for deglazing
Freshly ground black pepper
Sea saltÂ
½ lb pasta - something hearty - such as bucatini or rigatoni
½ cup pasta cooking water, reserved
Plus!
"Good" olive oil for finish
V parm, optional salt and more chili flakes for serving
fresh lemon
Directions:
Put a large pot on high heat for your impending pasta. Salt it right away and once it boils, set your time for two minutes under the recommended cooking time on the box. Get that pasta in.
Add the olive oil, garlic and crushed chili flakes to a medium or large saucepan, something big enough to fit the cooked ½ pound of pasta when it’s done. Turn the heat on, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the garlic begins to turn golden, no more than a minute or two.
Deglaze this pan with a good splash of white wine or water, turn the heat to low, and gently stir in your greens.
Next, add in a bit of salt, pepper, and a spoonful of the cooking pasta water, and cover, stirring now and then, as you finish the pasta. Feel free to turn off the saucepan for ease at this point.
Now that the pasta is almost done, reserve half a cup of pasta water before you strain. Drain your pasta, and quickly and carefully add it to the saucepan with your greens & garlic.
Turn the heat under the saucepan back up to medium, and stir regularly as it all warms, adding a spoonful of reserved pasta water at a time as you go for optimal starchy pasta & greens goodness. You’re not looking for a loose sauce - you want everything to just meld together. This final cooking should take about a minute or two.
Before serving, add a smidge more salt and pepper and a bit of grated vegan parmesan, if desired, into the pan. Season to taste!
Serve with additional parmesan and/or nooch, plate with an optional protein, maybe some fresh lemon (totally not a dealbreaker here) - and enjoy!
Potential vegan proteins to consider adding to this meal: breaded tofu, marinated & seared tofu or tempeh, pan-fried vegan sausage, stewed white beans, roasted chickpeas, and so on.
The OG marinated tofu in my coming-of-age-of-cooking (er, early twenties) is from Vegan with a Vengeance. I couldn't find the recipe in a 1-2-3 internet search right now, but I bet it's online. Any Italian tofu will forever be a rip on this – and on the Italian dressing-marinated-chicken I remember from a childhood friend's block party in my earlier coming-of-age years. Why didn't my family do that?! Â
(The answer is pretty clear, in instantaneous retrospect, being that I can't recall there ever being a storebought bottle of "Italian" in the fridge...)
Cue the final broccoli leaf harvest in late August…
See ya next year, broccoli leaves.
Relevant Links + Reads:
The Top One Hundred Pasta Sauces by Diane Seed
Easy Crispy, Baked Bread Tofu via I Can You Can Vegan!
Subarctic Gardening in Fairbanks, Alaska on frostygarden.comÂ
vegan parmesan selection, VeganEssentials.comÂ
Vegan with a Vengeance by Isa Chandra Moskowitz