Ingredients
- 400 g dry tagliatelle pasta
- 3 tablespoons olive oil, plus an extra drizzle, if desired
- 3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- 1 fresh red chili, thinly sliced
- Sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
- 200 g broccolini or purple sprouting broccoli, trimmed and cut in half (alternatively broccoli florets)
- zest and juice from 1 organic lemon
- 1 small bunch of parsley, coarsely chopped
- 30 g grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
- Handful pine nuts or slivered almonds, lightly toasted (optional)
Instructions
- Bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil. Add the spaghetti and cook according to package instructions, remembering you want the pasta al dente and not overly soft.
- Meanwhile, in a large non-stick skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat, once hot, add the garlic, fresh chilli, and season with salt and pepper. This is what gives the oil the flavor.
- Once the garlic becomes slightly transparent, add in the broccolini and sauté until crisp tender. Add the lemon zest and season with a little more salt and pepper.
- Drain the pasta (reserving some of the cooking water) and add it into the skillet with the broccolini. Mix together and add the lemon juice, parsley, and cook for another minute, until the broccolini is the desired consistency. Feel free to add a tablespoon or more of the reserved pasta water to thin out the sauce, or drizzle with a little more olive oil.
- Remove from the heat and stir in the parmesan. Scatter with pine nuts or almonds, if desired. Enjoy!
Nutrition
Notes
- The reserved pasta water is full of starch and flavored with salt and is great for thinning out the sauce without watering down the flavor. Sometimes the starch clinging to the noodles makes the sauce too thick, so adding some of the reserved pasta water is great to thin it out a little.
- If preferred, the broccoli can be boiled rather than sautéed, just add it to the pot with the pasta for the last 2 or 3 minutes of the cooking time (I like mine crisp tender so 2 minutes is fine). Drain, together with the pasta and then add to the sauce.
- This pasta isn’t what I would call a saucy pasta, it is only lightly coated with the chili-lemon-olive oil. If you want a prefer something richer, then feel free to add 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil to the recipe or a dollop of crème fraiche.