Broccoli pesto pasta
When broccoli is mentioned in a meal it is not all that inspiring, but this simple and quick meal is not only balanced, it is incredibly tasty.
As with all pasta meals, they are high-carb so not suitable every night of the week. We have one pasta meal a week, and always make sure we have a side salad too. Having said that we then have bread too (I know!), which is usually cheesy bread. We do this because it’s yummy and it does make it more interesting for little people.
So what is broccoli pesto? – this is essentially the same as traditional pesto, except we substitute steamed broccoli for the basil. One other point of difference is pine nuts – these are very expensive, and with nut free policies at many schools these days, the leftovers can’t be taken to school for lunch. So we substitute pine nuts with sunflower kernels. You do sacrifice a little bit of flavour, but it’s heaps cheaper!
Ingredients
1 head of broccoli, broken into florets, and steamed in the microwave until just cooked
100g of sunflower kernels
50g grated parmesan
1 clove garlic
Olive oil – amount differs, approximately 2 tablespoons, just to loosen it all up.
4 rashers of bacon
Pasta
Pide bread
Butter
Grated cheese
Method
Turn the oven onto 180 degrees Celsius. Once the oven is warm, place the bacon on an oven tray and cook for about 15 minutes. You can roast the garlic in the oven now, which is the best way, or you can add it raw to the pesto for a stronger flavour.
Grind up the broccoli, sunflower kernels, parmesan, and garlic in a food processor. You can also finely chop everything on a large board if you don’t have a food processor. Add the oil until it’s a good consistency. We like to leave it fairly chunky, but the consistency is up to you.
Get the cheesy bread ready – butter the bread, cover it with grated cheese, and stick it in the oven.
Put your water for the pasta on to boil, and add some salt.
Toast some nuts and seeds for your side salad – I do this in a small saucepan, but as you already have the oven on, you could also use it.
Cook the pasta according to the directions on the pack – don’t overcook it, pasta really does taste better a tiny bit firm (or al dente).
Get the bacon out of the oven, and drain it on some paper towel. If you’ve put your nuts in the oven, check on them and take them out to cool. Your cheesy bread should also be ready about now, so get it out to cool down.
Get the lettuce ready for the salad – just pick through it to make sure you’ve got lovely fresh bits, and rip it up or slice it up into bite-sized pieces. Pop in a bowl. Put 1 tablespoon of vinegar and 1 tablespoon of olive oil into a small jug and set aside – we’ll dress the salad when we serve.
Chop up the bacon into bite-sized pieces. Put a non-stick frypan on high heat, and add the broccoli pesto. Add approximately half a cup of the water the pasta is cooking in to the frypan. This will help with the consistency of the pesto. Cook for a few minutes and season the pesto to taste.
Drain your pasta, and add the pesto and bacon to it and mix well.
To Serve
To serve, place the pasta on the plate making sure to get a balance between amount of pasta, pesto, and bacon. Now, dress your salad, add the nuts and serve. Finally, add the cheesy bread.
That’s it! A really simple, cheap dish which tastes fantastic. Just remember that portion sizes with this type of meal are important – it is a high carb load, so go easy on how much pasta you serve.
