Seasonal local food recipe No.263 – Hugh’s pasta with purple sprouting broccoli, garlic and chilli

This is a variation on a recipe from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s book River Cottage Veg Every Day I posted last spring, using purple sprouting broccoli instead of spring greens, but it is so good that I think it is worth sharing it again.  If you don’t have a fresh chilli you can use 2 pinches of dried chilli flakes.

Serves 4

Cooking and preparation time: 15-20 minutes

Ingredients
250g purple sprouting broccoli
6 Tbs olive oil
1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely slivered
300g pasta shapes such as penne or fusilli
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

To serve:
olive oil
parmesan cheese, grated

Method
Rinse the broccoli and break into bite-sized pieces. Bring a large pan of water to the boil and add the pasta.   Add the broccoli to the pasta giving it a good 5 minutes cooking time.  Warm the olive with the chilli and garlic for a few minutes.

Once the pasta is al dente, drain the pasta and broccoli thoroughly and toss with the olive oil, chilli and garlic.  Check the seasoning then serve with olive oil for trickling and lots of grated cheese.