I think (hope) it would be an overstatement to characterize myself as a hypochondriac, but I’ll admit that I am one of those people who, every once in a while, will obsess over a “symptom” and then do exactly what everyone knows you’re not supposed to do and google it. Most recently, I worried about the fact that I hadn’t seemed that hungry lately, which is weird for me because I pretty much always wish I were eating. Of course, googling any symptom (like “loss of appetite”) returns countless medical conditions, ranging from nothing to worry about to definitely dying. Usually by the end of my search, in an effort to prepare for the worst, I’ll find an article titled something like “Top Ten Health-Boosting Superfoods.” And do you know what food consistently appears on these lists? Broccoli. In fact, I’ve read so much about how good broccoli is for humans that after eating a giant portion I automatically feel healthier, kind of like Popeye after he eagerly swallows (notably, in one gulp, so he doesn’t have to taste) his green mushy canned spinach. Luckily, I love broccoli, especially when it’s roasted, and so I try to make it as often as I can. In the below recipe, broccoli is roasted with garlic and tossed into fusilli pasta with walnuts (said to be good for brain health!), basil, turkey bacon, and parmesan cheese. Oh, and in case you were worrying about it, my appetite miraculously returned a few hours later, just in time for dinner.
recipe
Makes 2-3 servings
ingredients
- 1 head of broccoli
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 2 T olive oil
- 4 slices of turkey bacon (I like Trader Joe’s peppered turkey bacon)
- 8 oz fusilli pasta
- a large handful of basil, chopped
- 1/4 cup of chopped walnuts
- grated parmesan cheese to sprinkle on top
- salt and pepper to taste
directions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- Chop the broccoli into bite-sized florets and mince the garlic. Chop or tear basil into small pieces.
- Toss the broccoli and half the garlic with salt, pepper, and 1 T of olive oil on a baking sheet or shallow baking dish. Roast for 25 minutes.
- While the broccoli is roasting, start boiling water for your pasta. Once water is boiling, add the pasta and cook for 8-10 minutes (or follow the directions on the pasta package).
- As pasta boils, cook the turkey bacon. Heat a bit of oil in a large pan at medium high and add turkey bacon. With turkey bacon, I’ve found that it’s important to pan fry it longer than the package says, until it gets crispy and even a tiny bit charred. Set aside the cooked turkey bacon until it’s cooled a bit and then chop into smaller pieces. Set aside the pan, now coated with bacon-infused olive oil. We’ll reuse this pan later to finish up the pasta.
- When the pasta is cooked, reserve about a quarter cup of the pasta water and set aside before draining the pasta.
- Once your roasted broccoli is tender but a bit charred, take it out of the oven. In the same large pan you used for the bacon, sauté the rest of the minced garlic in 1 T of olive oil, trying to loosen and mix in any of the bits of bacon that may have stuck to the pan. Once the garlic is fragrant, add the cooked pasta and toss until the pasta is coated with the garlic-and-bacon-infused oil. If the pasta seems dry, add a little bit of the reserved pasta water. Add the roasted broccoli and bacon and toss in the pan until everything is evenly distributed. Remove from heat.
- Sprinkle parmesan cheese, chopped basil, and walnuts. Add salt and pepper to taste.
