When I was a kid, I hated broccoli.  H-A-T-E-D it.  The smell, the taste, the frightening green color… broccoli made me shudder.  Then, as often happens, I grew up.  And – who’da thunk? – now I adore broccoli and green is my favorite color.  But still, as much as I love broccoli now, I don’t reach for it in the grocery store.  I’ll load my plate up with it if someone else cooks it, but for some reason, it doesn’t occur to me to actually buy broccoli and cook it myself.  It’s as if my subconscious mind is still stuck in my childhood, at least at 8:00 on Saturday mornings when I’m at Wegmans.  Or I’m just too busy putting five English cucumbers into my cart… I’m not sure which it is.

Since it seems stupid to love a vegetable so much but never cook it, I have embarked on a quest to find and cook broccoli recipes.  I like to roast broccoli, sure – I’ll roast any vegetable I get near – but I think that broccoli deserves a special treatment.  After all, what better way can there be to make up for all those years of demeaning and disparaging broccoli than to find some creative and exciting ways to cook it now?  Here’s one way – saute/steamed, with a rich sauce and Parmesan cheese, tossed with farfalle pasta.  Look, Mom, I’m eating my broccoli!

Farfalle with Broccoli

1/2 pound farfalle pasta
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 anchovy fillets, minced
2 heads broccoli, chopped into florets
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
grated Parmesan, to taste (optional)

• Cook the pasta to al dente according to the package directions.
• While the pasta is cooking, melt the butter into the olive oil in a medium saute pan (with a cover) over medium-low heat.  When the butter and olive oil are melted and blended together, add the garlic, anchovy fillets and red pepper flakes and allow to cook for 5 minutes, until fragrant.
• Add the broccoli to the butter sauce and toss to coat.  Cover the saute pan and allow the broccoli to steam until the pasta is done cooking.
• When the pasta is finished cooking, toss it with the broccoli and sauce in a large serving bowl.  If necessary, add a little pasta water to thin and evenly distribute the sauce.  Finish with grated Parmesan to taste, if desired.

Yield: Serves 4 for a main course or 8 for sides

Source: Adapted from Everyday Pasta, by Giada de Laurentiis