These recipes
brings to mind the question of why some seemingly similar recipes work and some
fail. The top recipe works; the bottom one was a dud despite the ingredient
list it had going for it.
Orecchiette with broccolini
Adapted from“Two Fat Ladies: Obsessions” by Jennifer Paterson and Clarissa Dickson Wright.
The book is divided into chapters given over to various obsessions, from
cardoons to eels. This came from the comparatively mundane category of pasta.
Ingredients
½ cup olive
oil, divided
2 minced garlic
cloves, divided
½ teaspoon
crushed red pepper flakes
2 ounces
canned anchovies
1 28-ounce
can Italian peeled tomatoes
2 bunches of
broccolini
1 pound orecchiette
pasta
1 small
onion, diced
¼ cup golden
raisins plumped in 2 tablespoons white wine
1/3 cup pine
nuts
½ cup shaved
Parmesan cheese for garnish, optional
Method
Heat 4
tablespoons olive oil in large skillet over medium low heat. Add 1 clove of
minced garlic and red pepper flakes. Heat until fragrant. Stir in anchovies and
mash up into the oil. Add tomatoes, a generous pinch of salt and cook over
medium heat, allowing sauce to reduce while you prepare the rest of the dish.
Heat a large
pot of water to a boil. Add a tablespoon of salt and the broccolini. Cook until
tender crisp, about 6 minutes depending on the thickness of your broccolini.
Remove broccolini to a cutting board and chop into 1-inch pieces.
Bring water
back to a boil and add orecchiette. Cook until al dente and then drain.
In another
large skillet, heat remaining 4 tablespoons olive oil. Add onion and cook until
translucent. Add remaining garlic clove and cook 1 minute. Add cooked broccolini,
raisins and their liquid and pine nuts. Sprinkle with salt. Cook about 2 more
minutes over medium heat. Gently stir into tomato mixture.
Stir pasta
into tomato-broccolini mixture. (Or alternatively, put a bit of pasta in the
bottom of the serving dish, then add some of the sauce and alternate layers.
This is what the recipe called for, and I tried it that way, but decided I
prefer it mixed together because then more of the sauce nestles in the little
pasta pillows.) Garnish with Parmesan shavings.
Rating: Dave says: This is my new
favorite way to eat broccoli. I wouldn’t go that far, but the sauce has some nice
complexity of flavors.
Pasta shells with broccoli
Adapted from
“Low Fat,” a Barnes and Noble book by Martina Solter and Kathrin Ullerich
Ingredients
5 cups orecchiette
1¼ pounds
broccoli, cut into small florets
4 garlic
cloves, minced
½ teaspoon
crushed red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon
lemon zest
4
tablespoons olive oil
½ cup grated
Parmesan
Method
Heat a large
pot of water to a boil. Add some salt and broccoli and cook about 4 minutes. Remove
broccoli from water and drain. Bring water back to a boil and cook orecchiette until
al dente.
Meanwhile, combine
garlic, red pepper flakes, lemon zest and olive oil in a food processor. Whir
until emulsified. Pour mixture into a skillet and heat through. Simmer on low
heat until pasta is done. Drain pasta, reserving liquid.
Toss pasta with
flavored oil and broccoli. Adjust seasoning to taste with salt and pepper. Stir
in most of Parmesan and serve garnished with the rest.
Rating: Not a repeater. I didn’t even
bother blogging about it when I tried in January because I didn’t want to
perhaps mislead someone into wasting their time cooking it.
Both are
pasta dishes with broccoli, garlic and red pepper flakes. So, why is one so
much better than the rest? Admittedly, the one is from a cookbook entitled “Low
Fat,” which can sometimes translate into low flavor. And there is more olive
oil and fatty pine nuts in the first recipe. Anchovies aren’t always my
favorite, while I love lemon, so you’d think the second dish would have the
edge there, but it didn’t seem to tip things in its favor. So what gives? I’m
inclined to think it was the tomatoes, which helped bind the first dish
together and coated the pasta nicely, plus the overall greater depth of flavors
from a longer ingredient list.
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