Whilst thinking about what to make for dinner this evening, I remembered an old episode of Ready Steady Cook where the celeb chef somehow used a massive head of near raw broccoli with some penne pasta in 5 minutes. It sounded preposterous and not very tasty but they seemed to like it when they tasted it but they always do don’t they on these TV cooking shows? Anyway I remember making a version of this and adding some of my favourite ingredients and thinking it was deliciously zesty and moreish. It’s been a while so I made it again this evening, it’s super quick and an easy way to eat lots of broccoli without being smug about it! This whole dish takes around 15-20 minutes.

Broccoli Pine Nut & Lemon Pappardelle for 2

• Enough Pappardelle for 2 people
• Glugs of olive oil (50ml)
• 1 very large head of Broccoli or 2 smaller ones
• 50g of Pine Nuts- toasted
• Zest and Juice of a whole lemon
• Salt & Pepper
• 50g Grated Parmesan Cheese

Start with the preparation for the dish, to make a dish truly quickly spending 5 minutes getting all of your ingredients together and doing the chopping and measuring will save you lots of time once you start to cook.

Chop your broccoli into small florets, zest your lemon and then juice it and set aside, grate your parmesan ready and put your kettle on to boil water to cook the pasta.

Place 1 large pan on to heat up for the broccoli and another to toast the nuts. Once your kettle is boiled, start to cook your pasta for 8-10 minutes. Toast the pine nuts until they are lightly browned and set aside. Once the pan is hot for the broccoli add a good glug of oil and the butter. It will start to sizzle so add the broccoli immediately and start to stir fry, add a sprinkle of salt whilst it is cooking. I like cooking the broccoli on really high heat so it starts to char a little bit and remain crispy on the outside and starting to soften in the middle, it ends up having a wonderful nutty flavour. Stir fry on high heat for around 5-8 minutes. Take off the heat and add the cooked and drained pasta to the broccoli, a good glug of olive oil, salt and pepper, the pine nuts, zest and lemon juice. Give it all a good stir and you are ready to serve with lots of fresh parmesan.