Everythings Gone Greener

Pasta con i Broccoli, Pancetta & Parmigiano

Pasta with Broccoli, Bacon and Parmesan

A long, hard day, a blizzard to battle through to get home, trains and subways and more along the way... boy, was I ever glad to get home this evening! These are difficult days for me at present- we all have them and on days like these it is totally fine to make something simple to eat. No stress, no fuss... we can save those dishes for other days- at times like this what we need is comfort- pure and simple.

One thing that is always good comfort food is pasta... add cheese and you are ahead of the game... add bacon and you are onto a winner- and add some yummy broccoli into the mix and you have a healthy and yummy dose of comfort you can really indulge in!

This was very quick and easy to make and actually almost "healthy"- a lot lighter than it might look! And that is indeed a good thing!

I started off by bringing my water to the boil and adding the pasta- in this case it was "Festonati", but you can use any shape you might prefer. Whilst the pasta was bubbling away, I cut the broccoli into separate little florettes, which I added to the pasta after 3 minutes. And whilst I let the pasta cook for the next 5 minutes, I went about preparing a little bacon and onion in a non-stick pan for a little later on...

So, I sautéed the bacon and finely diced onion for 3-4 minutes, until the onion was soft and beginning to brown- as was of course the bacon... yum! By this point, the pasta was almost good, the broccoli was tender and it was time to drain it and add it to the frying pan along with the bacon and onion. I added just a little crushed garlic, salt, pepper and nutmeg and stirred it through. After a minute or so, I deglazed the pan with a good splash of milk. No cream... no need! You will see!

Soon the milk had brought up all of the good flavors from the bottom of the pan and helped the broccoli to disintegrate- and together they became a lovely, light, creamy coating for the pasta. And with a last sprinkle of pepper, nutmeg and some grated Parmesan cheese it was complete! Wonderful comfort food in next to no time... just what the doctor ordered! And my kinda medicine indeed!