#UseItAllUp – Whole Broccoli Pasta

#UseItAllUp is a series of recipes which uses up all of the main ingredients, avoiding waste.

I am indebted to my good friend and the Food Waste Stories resident artist Erin Chapman for this recipe. She in turn learned it from an old boyfriend from Italy, so it has Italian seal of approval. It’s a fantastic zero-waste recipe. Not only do you use a whole broccoli, but also a whole lemon, and you save water too. Originally the recipe calls for anchovies but she replaces them with a jar of artichokes for a vegan alternative. Her version only uses about half a jar but I bung them all in. You can save the artichoke oil in the fridge and use it in other recipes like risotto, for roasting vegetables like courgette, or for salad dressing.

Ingredients (makes 4 portions)

• 1 head of brocolli
• 1 jar of artichokes
• 1 red chilli
• 3-5 cloves of garlic
• 300g penne pasta
• Olive oil
• Salt
• 1 lemon
• Optional: black pepper and parmesan, to taste

Method

1. Bring a pot of water to boil. Take the whole head of broccoli (don’t chop it up!) and set broccoli head-down into the boiling water. Boil the broccoli for 10-15 minutes until soft but don’t let it turn brown.
2. While the broccoli is boiling, finely chop up the artichokes, chilli and garlic cloves. In a pan, heat up some olive oil and gently sauté the ingredients together.
3. When the broccoli is ready, remove from the boiling water and chop it up, stalk and all.
4. Don’t throw out the broccoli water just yet! This can be reused for the pasta water. Add more water if needed, add a dash of salt and bring to a boil. Then add in your pasta.
5. While your pasta cooks, take a couple cups full of pasta water and add to the artichoke, chilli and garlic mix. Turn up the heat and add in all the broccoli. Add the juice from the lemon. Stir and mash the broccoli until you get a nice, creamy, sauce consistency.
6. After boiling the pasta for 5 minutes, move the pasta into the broccoli sauce and continue to cook and stir until the pasta is ready (al dente is best!). Feel free to add more pasta water as needed to get the right consistency.
7. Once ready, serve with some parmesan cheese and black pepper to taste.

Buon appetito! Leftovers can be stored in an air-tight container in the fridge for 3 days.

If you want to take an extra step into zero-waste Italy, save the leftover lemon for this limoncello recipe.

Tried it? Share your result on Instagram.