Ingredients:
Serves 6
1 crown of broccoli cut into small to medium sized florets
1 cup of basil leaves de-stemmed and torn
1 cup kale leaves torn and de-stemmed
½ cup olive oil
¼ cup pine nuts toasted
1 cup parmesan grated fine (omit for a vegan version)
salt/pepper
red chili flakes
1 lemon zested and juiced
1lb curly pasta
Instructions:
Fill a stock or pasta pot with water, salt it heavily and bring to a boil. Throw your broccoli florets in the water for 3 minutes, then plunge them into icy water to stop the cooking process. Drain and dry them then pulse them in a food processor until processes, but not a paste or hummus. They should still taste and fee like broccoli. Remove to a bowl. Add the garlic, basil and kale to the processor. Pulse until it looks like a pesto consistency then add in pine nuts and pulse a few more times. Pour the mixture into the broccoli mixture and stir in parmesan cheese, olive oil, juice and zest of one lemon plus about ½ tsp of salt and pepper and a pinch of red chili flakes. Cook pasta to package instructions, drain (reserving 1 cup of pasta water), then toss with the veg pesto mixture and loosen it with ½ cup of water. Keep adding until the pasta seems creamy and fully coated with the pesto. Serve with extra parmesan.
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