Broccoli Rabe with Whole Wheat Pasta

This is a fast (20 minutes or so) vegetarian recipe for broccoli rabe aka rapini. I use BioNaturae whole wheat pasta because it hasn't got that gummy taste that some of them do. You can use the spaghetti or the shells. You can get it at New Leaf Markets. The pecorino romano is available from Costco. It is richer and a little saltier than parmesan but pamesan will work too if that's what you have on hand.

Just the greens with a little cheese over pasta is a very typical Italian family dinner. You can use this as a base recipe and substitute chard, kale, spinach, turnip greens, arugula, or beet tops for the broccoli rabe. You can saute a little Italian sausage with the greens, or add chopped sun dried tomatoes, fire roasted peppers, or small diced and roasted butternut squash. All of these additions will sweeten the dish.

Ingredients

1 to 1 ½ pounds of broccoli rabe
1 pound package of pasta
1 cup grated pecorino romano
1 pinch of red pepper flakes
1 or 2 tablespoon olive oil and more for later
1 or 2 cloves garlic chopped

Procedure

1. Put a large pot of water on to boil for the pasta. Grate the cheese.

2. Wash the broccoli rabe and shake off the excess water. Gather it all in a bunch and cut it into roughly into 2 inch pieces. Discard the woody ends, but do use all the upper leaves and stems. Put a few tablespoons of olive oil in a pan, add some red pepper flakes, chopped garlic, and just as the garlic turns golden, add the chopped broccoli rabe to the pan. Saute until the broccoli rabe is tender. Add a few spoonfuls of pasta water if it needs to cook a little longer.

3. Toss it with the cooked pasta and the grated cheese. I like to drizzle a little olive oil over the pasta at this time. You probably won't need to add salt, but taste it and see.

Serves 4.

A Lindencroft Farm Kitchen original recipe.

Last updated: February 25, 2007