OK … under a year since the last post so I’m not doing too badly but I’ve decided to get back in to writing about food again but keeping it simple. This means that often (like today) I’m not going to walk you step by step through a recipe (yeah – no photos of each ingredient laid out in a perfectly colour coordinated flat lay). Where recipes are online, I’ll link to them and note the changes I’ve made. If warranted, I’ll include the recipe.

So we start today with the Australian Women’s Weekly’s Pasta with Broccoli et al. The AWW tells you to use orechiette (the little ear-shaped pasta) but really – use whatever shape you want. In our case, because I always make the pasta, it is some kind of flattish pasta that comes straight out of the machine with no extra effort (this, despite the teenager suggesting I do stuff like make eleventy-million orechiette by hand …).

This is the type of recipe that’s kind of a guideline. It’s for four but I was cooking for two and used a bunch of broccolini (no idea of weight), 2 (maybe 3) anchovies (and these are, of course, entirely optional) and I added lemon zest to the chilli crumb.

Now look – making the crumb (pangrattato if you’re feeling Italian) is an extra step but it’s definitely worth it. To reduce the number of pans used, I made the crumb first and re-used the same pan for the broccolini etc. Of course, I had to put the crumb into a separate bowl so only saved on the type of dishes, not the number! I would advise NOT skipping the chilli and, as always, lemon rind (and definitely the lemon juice) adds extra freshness.

Super easy, almost vegetarian and gets you a healthy dose of greens! You could easily add extra greens (peas, sugar snap peas, asparagus etc) if you wanted.