Today we have a recipe from Chef Hollie Greene of Joy Foodly. Check out the yummy recipe below and their Barnraiser campaign to bring food, cooking, and health education to lower-income families through a school-based initiative that aims to help families eat more seasonal fruit and vegetables.
Betcha Won’t Believe it’s Broccoli Pesto Pasta
Serving size: 4
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 25 minutes
Ingredients
- spaghetti (gluten free), 1 12 oz box
- salt, 1 ¾ tsp (divided)
- broccolini (baby broccoli), 1 bunch
- olive oil, 1 TBS
- red pepper chili flakes, ½ tsp
Broccoli Pesto
- parmesan cheese (grated), 2/3 cup
- hazelnuts, 1/3 cup
- broccoli, 1 head (medium)
- parsley (fresh), 1 bunch (2 cups measured)
- salt, 2 teaspoons
- black pepper, ¼ teaspoon
- olive oil, 1 cup
Directions
Culinary Note: in our family, we make pesto without garlic. If your children love garlic, add 1 garlic clove when you are grinding the nuts and cheese.
Prep:
- Take 5 minutes to get out all your ingredients, measuring and cooking equipment needed, and place them on a cookie sheet within easy reach.
- Wash all produce.
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil (for every 8 cups add 1 ½ teaspoons salt).
- Grate Parmesan cheese. Set aside a little extra to sprinkle on top of your final dish.
- Cut off the tops of the parsley, trying to get mostly leaves. Don’t worry if you get some stems. They will blend up in the pesto.
- For the broccoli: cut off the florets (the flowering clusters at the end of the stem). Also cut most of the stem, just discarding the lower woody part. You can quickly cut off the outer parts of the stem (peel it with your knife) that are harder and chop the more tender inside of the stem into chunks.
Cook:
- First grind cheese and nuts together in a food processor.
- In the salted boiling water, drop broccoli florets and stems (not broccolini/baby broccoli). After 2 minutes, remove the broccoli and put directly into your food processor.
- Add the parsley, salt and olive oil and pulse until combined.
- For the broccolini (baby broccoli): quickly blanch it whole, by placing in the hot salty water for no more than 1 minute. Remove, dry, and chop roughly.
- Bring the salted water back up to a boil and cook the pasta according to the box instructions.
- While the noodles are cooking, you can quickly sauté the broccolini (baby broccoli) in a hot pan with olive oil, ¼ teaspoon salt, and red pepper flakes over medium high heat for about 2 minutes.
- Drain the noodles.
- In a bowl, combine cooked pasta with broccoli pesto and sautéed broccolini (baby broccoli), and serve with some extra Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top.