PASTA CON BROCCOLI
23 mar 2006

i really needed to use up the broccoli i had from that curry recipe a couple weeks ago & the cream i never used to make whipped cream when i made that apple crisp, so here we are at one of my favorite dishes from when i was a kid.

INGREDIENTS
4 ounces dry fettucine pasta
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons butter
1 ounce tomato sauce
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 cup broccoli florets
1/4 cup fresh sliced mushrooms
salt to taste
ground black pepper to taste
2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese

METHOD
cook fettuccini in a large pot of boiling salted water until "almost" done. drain, & return noodles to pot.

stir cream, butter or margarine, tomato sauce, garlic, & broccoli into the noodles. simmer until noodles are done. stir in sliced mushrooms, & remove from heat. sprinkle with parmesan cheese, & season with salt & pepper to taste.

DEVIATIONS & OBSERVATIONS
fettucine? no no no. maybe it's just that i have a soft spot in my heart for rich & charlie's terribly overcooked pasta con broccoli, but i just never visualize this dish with a long pasta -- r & c uses shells, my favorite shape is definitely wagon wheels, & on this particular night, i ended up using penne b/c that was the box i had in the cabinet.

i schlepped all my stuff over to daniel's house for a reason that sounded good at the time, & while he cursed at the speaker stands he built this afternoon, i boiled the water, chopped the broccoli, & threw everything together. so fast, so easy. mushrooms are a big no-no in my book (even though my distaste for them is purely psychological), so that variation had to go, & i used half a box of penne (which was 8 oz, not 4 oz), but it all came out JUST RIGHT.

i think this is probably daniel's favorite recipe to date -- or, at least, he was incredibly enthusiastic about it, which i can't say about every dish i've made thus far.

"Pasta Con Broccoli" from allrecipes.com.