Broccoli and Tomato Pasta

Saturday afternoon, still slightly drunk from friday night (yes - apparently I can't drink that much) and craving something healther than the previous days melted cheese fest, I opened the fridge to find.... not a lot. So after pulling a head of broccoli, a few tomatoes and a mountain of garlic from the fridge there was only one option, pasta! This created a really tasty lunch for 2 hungry people and took less than 30 minutes.

Ingredients:

1 small head of broccoli
2 ripe tomatoes
2 small cloves of garlic
a small handful of parsley
butter/olive oil
pasta
juice of 1/2 a lemon
black pepper
salt

Method:

Put on a large pot of water to boil. Pick small florets from the head of broccoli and steam for 3-5 minutes over the water (use a sieve or colander over the pot of boiling water). Keep the water boiling after steaming the broccoli, salt and add your choice of pasta and cook as the packet instructs. Meanwhile finely slice the garlic cloves and add to a cold saucepan (big enough for all the ingredients) with a slug of olive oil and a large knob of butter. Put over a low heat to infuse the oil and cook the garlic. Chop the tomatoes into small chunks and tear the parsley leaves from the stems.

Once the garlic is starting to fry add the steamed broccoli and turn the heat to a medium-high, and sauté, tossing the garlic and broccoli together every few minutes. Next add the tomatoes and toss everything together. Just as the tomatoes begin to soften (around 3 mins) add half a cup of the pasta water and a good pinch of salt and lots of freshly ground black pepper, let cook for 2 minutes then add another knob of butter (or glug of oil), the fresh parsley and cook for one minute more. Drain and add the pasta and toss everything together.

Serve with a few sprigs of parsley and a drizzle of chilli oil.