Made with broccoli or broccolini, olive oil and garlic, Italian Broccoli Pasta is the Mediterranean diet in a dish. Add sausage for broccoli or broccolini sausage pasta, which is spectacularly popular in Italy, and included in the recipe below.
There is no doubt that broccoli is good for you — a powerhouse in nutrition with long term preventative benefits. It all sounds great, and it is! But how do we make broccoli appetizing without loading it with cheese, butter or cream? How do we make it something we crave in our regular repertoire? Simple! Make Broccoli Pasta.
Italian Broccoli Pasta
I imagine very few people would put broccoli at the top of their list of favorite vegetables to eat. And I have to tell you, plain steamed broccoli is not for me either. But cooked in olive oil and garlic, with a pinch of peperoncino, a touch of lemon zest, and tossed with pasta? I can’t seem to get enough!
We’ve eaten this recipe for traditional Italian Broccoli pasta countless times! I especially love it when broccoli is at it’s best during the cooler months. It’s hard to describe, but eating this broccoli pasta is like inhaling well-being as you eat.
During the broccoli season we have broccoli pasta at least once a week. And every time we are reminded how delicious and satisfying this quick and healthy pasta dish is. Pure and simple goodness! It’s very substantial, so we eat pasta with broccoli as a main dish.
This is one of those easy and satisfying dishes the Mediterranean is known for. You can have the sauce ready by the time the pasta is done cooking.
Ingredients in Traditional Italian Broccoli Pasta
Italian broccoli pasta is simply broccoli, garlic, olive oil and a touch of chili pepper — with a little lemon zest added to ameliorate the brassica aromas in the kitchen.
Be sure to get the freshest broccoli with the deepest green color you can find — the star of the dish must be vibrant!
Broccoli – Where does it come from?
It all started from a weed looking plant (Brassica oleracea) that grows wild in the eastern Mediterranean coastal areas and seaside cliffs. The Etruscans, who 3,000 years ago lived farther west in what is today’s Tuscany, were among other things accomplished farmers. One of the crops they developed from Brassica oleracea was broccoli.
So broccoli is man made. The Etruscans later became Romans, who cultivated it extensively and loved it dearly. Broccoli in Italian is … broccoli!, stemming from the latin word brocco — bud.
Over the centuries, a list of well known crucifers were bred from the same plant into what we know as kale, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, collard greens, cabbage, turnips and kohlrabi.
Tips for Buying Broccoli
Although a year round vegetable, broccoli picking season is in the cool months, from around October to April, and purple broccoli from around February through April. The buds, stems and leaves are all edible. We want as fresh as possible.
Choose broccoli that is firm to the touch with tight florets. Look for the darkest green or almost blue/purple-green color. Avoid damaged or discolored broccoli, thick pale stalks or yellowish florets — characteristics which generally hint at bland tasting stalks and unpleasant tasting florets.
A Note on Storing Broccoli
Once harvested, the clocks on! To keep it’s nutritional value from degrading, store fresh broccoli wrapped in the refrigerator, and eat as soon as possible.
Broccoli Variations
Italian broccoli pasta can be made with pretty much all broccoli types and broccoli-likes in the brassica family:
- broccolini, purple broccoli
- Romanesco broccoli (Italian: Broccolo Romanesco, Broccolo Romano, Broccoli Romani) cauliflower (cavolfiore) (A delicious tradition in Italy combines olives with cauliflower, or Romanesco. Try it!)
- broccoli rabe (turnip buds, known in different parts of Italy as: broccoli di rapa , cima di rapa (turnip top), rapini, broccoletti, friarielli)
Peperoncino
Peperoncino, or chili pepper is a key ingredient, one of the few that stands up to and goes well with broccoli. If you are not really into peperoncino, I would recommend trying half as much, or using a milder chili powder, like piment d’Espelette. Peperoncino is a winning ingredient with broccoli, even when keeping it mild.
Best Pasta for Broccoli
Traditionally, the pasta of choice in Italy is orecchiette (pronounced oh-rek-kyeh’-teh), little ears. Their concave shape fills with bits of broccoli. Cavatelli are also popular. However, at home we mostly eat broccoli pasta with spaghetti — out of convenience, as we always have a good spaghetti in our pantry, but also because twirling pasta seems to go very well with broccoli!
Good Dried Pasta
A big part of the beauty and allure of Mediterranean cooking are all the simple dishes like this one. But the secret of eating highly satisfying meals with few ingredients is using excellent ingredients. Once we’ve obtained a broccoli of the best quality, we need a pasta with a great bite!
Sought after Qualities for Dried Pasta
- The ability to cook up to al dente, perfect to the bite (or even al chiodo, to the nail, or hard as a nail, if you like).
- A firm, dense, chewy texture.
- A full creamy mouthfeel.
- Good flavor.
- A rough surface that has the ability to cling to and absorb sauces.
Standards for accomplishing these qualities include sourcing select durum (hard) wheat semolina (semolino in Italian), extruding the pasta with bronze dyes, and drying the pasta slowly at low temperatures.
Buying Good Dried Pasta
There are dozens of artisan-producers, the gold standard, as well as semi-industrial producers with high standards, that make high quality dried pastas. In addition to a couple of local pastas, we have in our cabinets right now: Rummo, De Cecco, Garofalo and Molisana.
The best pasta brand? Below is a list of some of the best Italian pasta brands — well respected pastifici (pa-stee-fee-chee). There are more, but these are some of the one’s I’ve seen available in the USA, which you can either find in your grocery store down the street, specialty gourmet shops, or online. (Amazon/Whole Foods includes several from the list below. It’s easiest to search Amazon by individual brand. Eataly’s pasta page has a good selection and is easy to browse.) I’ve also included a well respected American pasta maker, which can be found at Whole Foods Market.
Artisan Pasta Maker in U.S: Severino Pasta
Italian Pasta Makers / Pastifici:
- Artisan/Specialty (Artigiano): Afeltra, Benedeto Cavallieri, Faella, Martelli, Setaro
- Farmers make their own (Agricolo): Mancini Pastificio Agricolo
- Commercial/Semi-Artisan (Industriale), more likely at your local grocery store: De Cecco, Garofalo, la Molisana, Rummo
Variations
After years of enjoying the exact Italian Broccoli pasta recipe I’m sharing with you below, at one point, we decided to try a couple of flavor variations we’d heard about.
What we found was: few ingredients can hold their own to broccoli!
- Basil? Love it, but its delicate beauty disappears into the depths of the broccoli!
- Capers? Poof — their flavor and texture is swallowed by the broccoli, with just a lingering vinegar taste to show for it.
- Anchovies and delicious pecorino cheese? Truth is, unbelievably, we couldn’t tell any difference when we added anchovies and pecorino. It’s as if we hadn’t added them to the dish at all! This was a real surprise. Of all ingredients, I was surprised these powerful ingredients didn’t have an impact.
- A spoon of double concentrated tomato paste? It doesn’t make broccoli pasta better than it already is.
So our verdict is: why bother? The traditional Italian Broccoli Pasta recipe we’ve been making for years is already perfect!
Exception! We’ve found salsiccia, pancetta, guanciale, or bacon definitely hold their own, and are delicious with broccoli. In fact, they actually cover, or compete with the flavor of broccoli a little. Broccoli pasta is actually delicious without meat and doesn’t need it. But, I can see adding it to entice typically non-broccoli lovers to enjoy a plate with you. (valid!)
Tips for Making the Best Italian Broccoli Pasta
- Broccoli cooked with little water has shown to preserve nutritional values the most — mainly for vitamins, since minerals tend to stick around anyway. Braising minimizes loss of vitamins since we minimize cooking time and don’t throw away nutrients with the water.
- Cut broccoli into small pieces to help it cook faster. The less time broccoli is cooked, the better. We are talking less than ten minutes. To do this, we add small pieces of broccoli to water that is already hot. The broccoli, your taste buds, and your kitchen will benefit from cooking broccoli as quickly as possible. Broccoli stays a more beautiful shade of green, retains more nutrients, has better flavor, and has a less sulfurous aroma.
- How to neutralize the sulfuric aroma in broccoli: A lot of people, understandably, are turned off by the sulfuric “aroma” that broccoli, like all the cruciferous vegetables, releases when cooking longer than a few minutes. Besides a short cooking time, it is helped with a little lemon zest or squeeze of lemon (note: avoid squeezing lemon juice on leaves, to prevent discoloring). Or a bay leaf or two is also helpful.
- Add most of the olive oil to the mashed broccoli just before serving. If you add it all at the beginning, the mashed broccoli soaks up all of the olive oil, making you think that you need to add more. You can easily end up adding twice the oil! So add most of the olive oil, a good fresh extra virgin one that tastes good — at the end.
- Broccoli Florets or Broccoli Stalks? My hub prefers to include only the florets and leaves of the broccoli. However, if you like the broccoli stalk like I do (my favorite part), you can finely slice it so that it will cook quickly. Then, once it’s cooked, you can easily mash it, in the same pan, to create a little bit of a creamy sauce-like texture. We enjoy it both ways. You choose!
Recipe
Ingredients
- 8 oz pasta (½lb) spaghetti or orecchiette
- 1 lb broccoli, or broccolini (see other variations in notes)
- 4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil (fragrant and good to the taste)
- 2 cloves of garlic, chopped or finely sliced
- a pinch of peperoncino (chili pepper), about ⅛ tsp or less, powdered (or crushed)
- zest of half lemon (optional), or squeeze of one lemon wedge, or 1 bay leaf
- kosher or table sea salt
Instructions
- Bring a large covered pot of salted water to boil.
- Meanwhile, trim the broccoli: Trim base and discard. Cut the florets off the top, and into about 1 inch (2½cm) pieces. Pull off all the better leaves and add to the florets. If using the stalk, which will make the sauce creamier when mashed, peel or cut off the tough outer layer, and slice into as thin of rounds possible.
- Place the garlic, chili pepper and about 1 Tablespoon of olive oil in a sauté pan or skillet, and cook for a few minutes over medium heat until the garlic just starts to color. Careful not to let it brown. Pour in 1 cup (240ml) of water, and bring to a boil.
- Add the broccoli and ¼ teaspoon of salt. Optionally add lemon zest. Cover and cook over medium heat until just tender and most of the water has evaporated.
- Meanwhile, add the pasta to the salted boiling water and cook, stirring occasionally, until al dente, tender yet still firm to the bite.
- Mash half of the broccoli in the pan into a paste with a potato masher, making sure to mash all of the creamy slices of stalk, if using. Add 4 tablespoons of olive oil and mix well. Taste and adjust for salt. Cover to keep warm until pasta is ready.
- Transfer the pasta to the broccoli with a pasta fork and toss. Enjoy immediately!
Bonus! You know what is also really good?
- A broccoli sandwich from this recipe — I’m telling you, it’s delicious! It’s actually how we started eating this Italian broccoli pasta dish years ago. A well respected colleague from Italy, true story, gave away his broccoli sandwich, made by his dear wife, so that he could eat junk food! I have always loved broccoli, but it had not once occurred to me in my life to eat a broccoli sandwich. Come to find out, they are quite delicious! Great in pita bread too. The secret is good olive oil and salt, surprise! So, if you have extra broccoli, or want to make extra broccoli for sandwiches tomorrow, while making today’s Italian Broccoli Pasta, I highly recommend it.
- The broccoli made from this recipe also makes a great side dish!
