Times are strange. For the first time in a few generations, the entire world has been turned upside down. Or is about to be. We are all unsure, we are all waiting. We’re being asked to stay home, to self-isolate. To not freak out. In times like these - who am I kidding - in this unprecedented time, thank god for the internet. And thank god for pasta.

I’ve written about this pasta before. The first time was ages ago when both this blog and I were babies. You can peek it deep in the shortlists archives but actually, maybe you shouldn’t. All you really need to know is that it’s the best. Let me list the reasons why. Ready? It…

is vegan
has 3 ingredients (4 if you’re feeling sassy)
is somehow even better cold from the fridge the next day
is very, very easy
wastes nothing, not even the pasta water, so it’s good for the planet
costs very little to make (less than £1 per serving)
doesn’t require draining, I hate draining
fills you up on vegetables
takes less than 30 mins start to finish
makes the best use of what may be the cutest pasta shape of all time

It’s a classic contadino’s dish from Puglia, Italy’s heel, using broccoli and olive oil - local ingredients found in abundance - and the local pasta shape perfect for collecting juicy veggie bits. The method is pretty classic, too: reusing the water in the recipe means it required very little energy when energy was scarce.

What makes this recipe even more relevant to today’s crisis is that it is easy to plan for. I do love to plan (this isn’t called “the shortlists” for nothing!) but endless queues in the markets with empty shelves plus the potential for a citywide lock down or true quarantine means we’ve really got to plan. This dish is as easy a having a lot of broccoli in the fridge and a bag of orecchiette somewhere deep in your rations. Go ahead, stockpile broccoli (it’ll keep!).

It’s been a minute since we’ve had such an existential crisis as a society, as a civilisation. Where we live there have been truly beautiful instances of neighbours, businesses and institutions coming together to protect the most vulnerable. In my household, where the kids have been home from school and mostly cooped up indoors for the last few days, we’re turning to old favourites (and all the gummy bears I bought for emergencies) for comfort. This pasta isn’t really an “old favorite,” it’s more like a weekly staple. Over the years, I’ve slowly added more and more broccoli to the recipe so at this point it’s just a big old pile of mushy, garlicky, salty broccoli being hugged by little pillows of pasta. In other words, it’s perfect.

If this recipe can give you and whomever you feed comfort in this time of unknowns, that’s what this is blog is all about.

Orecchiette con i broccoli

You don’t have to use orecchiette (“little ears”) but if you can find them, you should. If you can’t get your hands on them, any short pasta will do. As always, I recommend Garofalo and De Cecco as the best everyday pasta brands. I never use anything else (don’t even look at me, Barilla). I use 4 heads of broccoli for 1 bag of pasta, but you can use whatever you have. Some crazy people add anchovies. You do you. If you’re more of a visual learner, I’ve put a play-by-play of this under ‘orecchiette’ in my Instagram stories :)

olive oil

3 cloves garlic (more if you like it pungent!)

4 heads broccoli

coarse salt

1 bag (500 grams/1 lb) orecchiette pasta

Start by grabbing two big pots. Fill one with a lot of water and bring it to the boil.

Meanwhile, chop up all your broccoli into florets. Use a lot of the stems, too, it’ll all cook down.

In the other pot, add some very generous glugs of olive oil. (Let it glug for 5 seconds.) Coarsely chop the garlic and cook it in the oil over very low heat. You do not want it to brown at all, so if it starts to, just turn off the heat and let it sit.

Once the water in the other pot is boiling, add A LOT - two little handfuls - of salt. Add all the broccoli to the boiling water and cover. Let it boil until the broccoli is kinda soft but not mush, about 10 mins.

Once broccoli is boiled, use a slotted spoon to transfer it to the other pot with the olive oil and garlic. It’s ok if a little pasta water gets in. Cover it up, turn up the heat to medium and cook it all together, stirring and smooshing often. Add more of the broccoli water or more olive oil if it seems too dry. You can also had a few shakes of chili flakes. (Go ahead, go crazy.)

Meanwhile, bring the broccoli water back to a boil and add the entire bag of pasta. Stir and cook until al dente, about 5 mins (or 2 - 3 mins less than what the bag says). As pasta boils, stir and smoosh the broccoli, drink some wine, set the table.

When pasta is super al dente, use that slotted spoon to transfer it to the broccoli pot. Keep the heat up on high and cook it all together for a minute or two, testing the pasta to make sure it’s cooked to your liking. You may need to add some of the pasta water or some more olive oil to keep it from sticking, and you will almost definitely need to add some salt (broccoli LOVES salt).

Serve into individual bowls with a little drizzle of olive oil on top if you’re feeling fancy.