This isn't really a recipe, but more an assembly of ingredients from an empty fridge inspired by cucina povera cooking, combined with my laziness for grocery shopping (yet always wanting something tasty to eat). The stomach wants what the stomach wants!
This ticks all the boxes and works with packet pasta too of course, but making pasta is a fun thing to do on a lazy weekend.
Ingredients
Orecchiette Pasta
–
400g '00' Flour
salt
Broccoli Sauce
–
olive oil 1 large garlic clove, peeled and finely chopped 3-4 anchovies (leave out if vegetarian, but season with salt)
1 head of broccoli, stem finely chopped and tops shaved (this allows for quicker cooking) 1 tbs of baby capers, chopped
1 tbs of caper liquid (because I had no lemons)
1 red chili
Lazy Pangrattato
–
olive oil
1/2 garlic clove, peeled and finely chopped
3/4 cup of panko breadcrumbs
maldon sea salt
(finely chopped parsley and lemon zest would also be great, but I didn't have any today)
Orecchiette Pasta
Make as per Julia's easy to follow recipe over at OSTRO.
(I didn't dust the formed orecchiette in semolina, I just placed them on a slip mat without them touching)
Boil a pot of salted water while you get on with the sauce.
Broccoli Sauce
In a heavy-based frypan that has a lid, heat a good glug of olive oil and fry off the garlic for a few minutes on a medium heat. Add the anchovies and break up with a wooden spoon until melted away.
Add the broccoli stems first, they need a bit more cooking. Then add the rest of the broccoli with the capers, the caper liquid and a bit of water from the boiling pot to help everything steam. Clamp on a lid and turn heat down to low while you make the pangrattato.
Lazy Pangrattato
In another frypan, fry off the garlic in a generous amount of olive oil on a medium heat until tender with some salt. Be careful not to burn it.
Add in the panko and fry off until golden brown on a lower heat. (Add in the parsley and lemon zest too if you have it).
Take off the heat and put in a bowl and set aside.
To Serve
Cook the pasta and check on the sauce, I like to add the chili now and then I turn up the heat to medium-high.
Once the pasta floats to the top, wait another few minutes then scoop the pasta out of water with a slotted spoon and toss into the broccoli sauce. A bit of the pasta water going in is good. Drizzle with more olive oil and toss until the sauce slightly thickens/dries out and coats the pasta.
Serve into bowls and top with pangrattato.