Orecchiette with broccoli and chilli sauce
- Preparation and cooking time
- Total time
- Easy
- Serves 2
Ingredients
- 200g orecchiette
- 3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
- 2 anchovy fillets, drained
- 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- 1 red chilli, thinly sliced (or a generous pinch of dried chilli flakes )
- 1 large head broccoli, broken into very small florets of equal size
- 50g parmesan, finely grated, plus extra to serve
- a large handful of leaves flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
Method
- STEP 1
Cook the orecchiette in boiling salted water for 1 minute less than the pack instructions
- STEP 2
Meanwhile, put the oil, anchovies, garlic and chilli in a cold frying pan and bring up to heat over a medium-high heat. Mash the anchovies with a wooden spoon as they cook and they will dissolve into a paste. As soon as the garlic starts to sizzle, add a ladleful of the pasta cooking water, all the broccoli florets and season. Give it a stir and cover with a lid to steam for 10-15 minutes or until the broccoli is very mushy. Check every now and then to make sure the pan hasn’t gone too dry – if it does, add another splash of pasta water. Remove from the heat.
- STEP 3
Drain the pasta, reserving a cupful of the cooking water. Tip the orecchiette into the frying pan and put back over a medium heat. Add a splash of the reserved pasta water and the parmesan, and toss for 1-2 minutes or until a sauce begins to form and cling to the pasta. Add more of the pasta water if it gets a little dry. Stir through the parsley.
- STEP 4
Divide between two bowls, drizzle over a little extra olive oil, grate over some extra parmesan and crack over a few twists of black pepper. Eat straight away.
