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 processed, but not a paste or hummus-like. They should still taste and feel 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 and up to the full cup if desired. Just keep adding the water until the pasta seems creamy and fully coated with the pesto. Serve with extra parmesan.
share