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Rigatoni with Roman Broccoli Sauce
Romans use the leaves that grow around heads of broccoli to make a flavorful sauce for pasta. In the U.S., most of the leaves are stripped off before broccoli is sold. Our recipe instead uses the stems, which are equally flavorful and produce a silky sauce. Baby spinach retains the color of the original recipe.
4
Servings
Tip
Don’t undercook the broccoli stems. We're accustomed to cooking vegetables until crisp-tender, but the stems here should be cooked until fully tender.
35 minutes
Ingredients
-
1
pound broccoli, stems and florets separated
-
Kosher salt and ground black pepper
Directions
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01In a large pot, bring 4 quarts water and 2 tablespoons salt to a boil. Peel the broccoli stems, reserving any leaves, and cut crosswise into ½-inch rounds. Add the stems and leaves to the boiling water and cook until fully tender, about 10 minutes. Stir in the spinach and cook until wilted, about 20 seconds. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the vegetables to a blender; reserve ½ cup of the cooking water. Keep the water at a boil.
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March 25, 2024
Sneaky good.
Looking at this recipe I was not sure how it was going to come out because I hate over cooked vegetables. However this dish was lovely. Good complexity and richness but it was not heavy. I was a little heavier with the pepperoncini and the black pepper than the recipe but that’s my taste. The broccoli florets were not over cooked, they still had some tooth to them. While the cooking technique seems complicated it’s really not, you only have one pot to clean! This one is going in the regular rotation.
March 10, 2024
A real surprise in richness!
The sauce basics are great. I think anyone who knows what they want in a sauce (texture-wise) can adjust the amount of water added back in. We added it to the initial blending, but barely needed any at the end. The aldente pasta texture against the 3 minute boil and then chilled texture of the broccoli was awesome. The lemon zest almost stole the show. I would not avoid the pepper flakes (we used 2 pinches of cayenne) because the back heat wraps up all the flavors in the end. Super great recipe I would have NEVER thought of!
December 8, 2023
The Best Broccoli Pasta I've Ever Made
I make broccoli pasta a lot. It is one of my favorite weeknight dishes to make. This was hands down the best version I ever made. I loved how the stalks and spinach came together to make this amazing sauce. My only addition was lemon juice cause I thought it needed more acid. It did make the sauce less vibrant green but I didn't mind it. I also added a few anchovies. It seemed like a good fit. My other alteration was, I doubled the sauce, added extra broccoli, and used a pound of pasta.
November 6, 2023
Broccoli pasta at its best
I loved this recipe. The sauce was luscious and broccoli forward with nice notes of brininess and citrus. I was lucky enough to have broccoli from my CSA that still had plenty of leaves on it. I would use slightly less chili flake next time - I like heat but found it a little overpowering. Also, this dish was easy to prepare - fewer pans to clean after than a typical pasta recipe. Definitely a make again recipe for me.
October 30, 2023
very creative
Enjoyed the complex flavors in this creative reimagining. Delicious.
Corinne - great question! I would recommend making the spinach and broccoli sauce, then freezing the sauce in portions (you can use an ice cube tray or silicone molds). That'll be easier to thaw and cook with than making the entire pasta dish, as frozen and thawed pasta can easily end up mushy. I would also encourage you to only add as much cooking water as absolutely necessary to get a creamy mixture, but not more than that. You can always thin with more water once thawed.
- The Milk Street Team
This recipe's instructions are confusing, as to what water you save ("reserve") and what water you add to the sauce. How can you cook the pasta in a half cup of water? Is there a second pot of boiling water to cook the pasta in? What am I missing? Any suggestions, you folks who have succeeded in cooking this (or the MilkStreet folks)? Thanks!
Hi Jay -
The recipe starts out with 4 quarts of water in which you first cook the broccoli stems and spinach. After cooking those you reserve 1/2 cup of the cooking water that, in Step 3, gets added to the blender to make the sauce. The remaining water (which is just under 4 quarts at this point), is then used to cook the broccoli florets and then the pasta. After the pasta cooks you reserve an additional 1/2 cup of the cooking water in order to adjust the texture of the sauce in 1/4 cup increments. We hope that clears it up!
Best,
The Milk Street Team
Would be really great if all the recipes were in aa more printer friendly format - like two pages instead of three half full ones. So much less waste of paper and storage space in my recipe file
We loved this recipe too! I do think the red pepper was a bit much. I might use only half of what it calls for next time. I don't like capers so I just didn't include them. I cannot imagine what they'd add to the results. Also, the fresh spinach looked terrible at the store today, and since I had a bag of frozen chopped spinach, I guessed at how much 1 1/2 cup packed fresh spinach would reduce to and used a bit less than 1 cup of frozen spinach (thawed by the time I needed it). Seemed to work just fine! The recipe says it serves 4. 2 of us ate it tonight (with seconds) along with a grilled chicken thigh. I have enough leftover to feed 4 more! (Yes, I cooked 12 oz of pasta, not a whole pound as mentioned by one reviewer.) I too wish the "print" formatting would consolidate the space better. On this recipe, a half page is used up with the title and photo, both of which I like but not with tons of wasted white space around it. I want my recipes on one page. I know, some just need two pages. But certainly not 3 or more!) I will make this again.
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Again, so salty. Every Milk Street recipe is like a salt lick. Just don't add any. There is more than enough in the cheese.