Broccoli and tomato pasta

Broccoli and tomato pasta combines cooked pasta with the flavours of broccoli, sun dried tomatoes and pesto. It is quick and easy to prepare making it ideal for weeknight dinners.

It makes a tasty lunch or dinner and is perfect served alongside a green salad, olive bread or focaccia.

Simply cook and mash the broccoli, cook and drain the pasta and combine with the other ingredients. It can be ready in about three quarters of an hour making it ideal for the end of a busy day.

If you are looking for other ideas for quick and easy weeknight dinners you may also like to try broccoli and blue cheese risotto, vegetable pesto pasta or Mediterranean vegetable stew.

The quantities in this vegetarian pasta recipe are enough for two servings but can easily be adjusted to make whatever quantity you wish.

Ingredients

• 150g broccoli - use fresh broccoli for this recipe for maximum flavour an texture. Frozen broccoli contains too much water. The best way to cook the broccoli is to steam it to retain maximum flavour.

• 180g dried pasta - various types of dried shaped pasta are suitable for this recipe including fusilli, penne pasta or rigatone. Ideally choose a type with grooves such as fusilli to hold the broccoli and pesto.

• 1 lemon - this recipe uses both the zest and juice of a lemon. As the zest is used ideally choose an organic unwaxed lemon, alternatively, lightly scrub the lemon before zesting. Ideally use fresh lemon juice rather than bottled lemon juice.

• 3 tablespoons pine nuts - alternatively you could substitute other nuts such as broken cashew nuts, walnuts or pecans or seeds such as sunflower or pumpkin seeds.

• 3 teaspoons pesto - pesto will add flavour to this dish. Use either ready made pesto or homemade pesto.

• A few sun dried tomatoes (about 2 tablespoons when chopped) - sun dried tomatoes add an intense flavour to this dish. If you prefer to use fresh tomatoes roast them in the oven with a little extra virgin olive oil before adding to the other ingredients.

How to prepare

Lightly cook the broccoli either by steaming or boiling. Partially mash using a fork, leaving some small pieces of broccoli to add texture to the dish.

Cook the pasta until al dente, drain and then return to the empty pan. Retain some of the water to add later on.

Drain the oil from the sun dried tomatoes and cut each one into 2 or 3 pieces.

Add the mashed broccoli, lemon juice, lemon zest, pesto, pine nuts and tomatoes, (all the remaining ingredients) to the pan with the cooked pasta.

Add a little of the drained pasta water and heat through gently stirring all the time so that it does not stick. This should only take a few minutes.

How to serve

Serve this pasta dish as soon as it is ready either on its own or with a green leafy salad. Or you could make some focaccia, olive bread or rosemary and olive tear and share rolls to enjoy with it.

How to store

I think this pasta dish is at its best when freshly cooked but if you have any left over you could store it in the fridge until the next day before reheating in an oven or microwave.

Tips

1. Broccoli and tomato pasta can be kept warm in the oven at a low temperature until you are ready to serve.
2. Dried pasta with ridges such as twists or rigatoni are ideal for this recipe as they help to hold the mashed broccoli and pesto in the grooves.

Other vegetarian pasta recipes

Other quick and easy weeknight dinners