pasta with garlicky broccoli rabe
In my humble opinion, there’s cooking and there’s cooking. (I know, I’ll just give you a minute for the staggering profundity of that sentence to kick in.) What I mean is, it’s one thing to turn banana bread into a crepe, that crepe into a cake, that cake into a vehicle for , and it’s an entirely other thing to find yourself at the playground at 5:15 p.m. and realize a) you don’t actually have anything in the fridge that you can turn into dinner, b) you, in fact, barely feel like cooking, in fact, your interest in cooking is only a single degree stronger than your desire to order in, so this better be easy, and c) the adjacent farmers market which you have heard from others boasts ramps and asparagus and spinach and other new! spring! delights! in fact, at the tail end of the day, boasts few things aside from a straggler of a single bundle of broccoli rabe. And you broccoli rabe, you’ve warmed to it since you’ve accepted it into your life, but you hardly excel in turning it into a lightning-quick, lazy, and completely satisfying dinner (or LQLACSD for short).
Estimated Nutrition (whole recipe, rough)
What these numbers assume — 6 portions →
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Pasta | 1 cup cooked (140g) | 220 |
| Olive Oil | 1 tbsp (14g) | 119 |
| Broccoli | 1 cup chopped (156g) | 55 |
| Chili | 1 tsp (2.7g) | 8 |
| Garlic | 1 clove (3g) | 4 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
Totals for the whole recipe, adding one typical portion per ingredient — listed above. Quantities in the recipe are not counted, so this is a rough guide only — not suitable for medical or dietary planning.
Ingredients
- 1 pound pasta, whatever shape you like (but chunky ones will match up better with the rabe)
- 1 pound broccoli rabe, heavy stems removed, remaining stems and leaves cut into 1- to 2-inch sections (I attempt to match my pasta in length)
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 5 garlic cloves, peeled and minced or pressed
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or more or less to taste
- About 1 heaping teaspoon Kosher salt (or more to taste)