Broccoli, Aglio, olio et peperonchino

The last thing you want to do when you get home from work is cook up a meal that's going to leave you slaving away in the kitchen for hours when you'd rather be relaxing. Or, in some cases, shooting complete strangers online. Which is why this one's such a regular dish in my repertoire. I picked it up off a cooking show years ago and it's been a keeper ever since.

The important thing here is fresh ingredients. You can get away with dried chillis or slightly wilted broccoli, but you'll be doing yourself and the dish a dis-service. Good olive oil is also a plus, otherwise, this one's dead easy.

Broccoli, Aglio, olio et peperonchino

In other words, it's a broccoli pasta with garlic and chilli in olive oil. It's pretty much as simple as it sounds, and the name is pretty much also the ingredients list!

ingredients

Rotini (or spiral) pasta

Two heads of broccoli

Two or three cloves of garlic

Two or three hot birdseye chillies

Parsley

Oil

Pepper

Parmesan

A much easier proposition than my last effort!

Get a pot of salted water boiling away, and while you're waiting for a good rolling boil, chop up the broccoli, basically separating each branch without leaving too much stalk - maybe an inch at most. Toss the broccoli into the boiling water, leave for a couple of minutes or until it starts to simmer again and remove broccoli, but keep the water.

This is blanching - it brightens the colour of the brocolli, and heightens the flavour, but the trick is to be quick. You don't want boiled broccoli mush! It should still be very firm. You keep the water because you want that subtle broccoli flavour for the pasta.

When the water's boiled again add your pasta. Spiral's the best choice, because it'll really work with the sauce and looks great alongside the broccoli. Those who make their perception tests might notice I've mixed spirals and penne - that's more a case of lack of foresight than anything else, as we had less pasta in the pantry than I realised.

While the pasta's coming along, chop everything else up very finely - garlic, chilli and parsley. generously oil a frying pan and add the chopped ingredients, then add heat. You don't want to fry the herbs, but warm them as the oil warms. Add the drained broccoli, and toss through the oil. If you've timed things right, you can drain the pasta and add it straight to the pan, otherwise remove the pan from the heat to make sure you don't end up with crunchy garlic.

With everything in the pan, stir it all through vigorously. You want everything nice and shiny with the oil, and you'll note a lot of garlic and tastiness sticking in the spirals of the pasta - that's why we want spirals!

Remove from heat, plate up in a bowl, grate or shave some Parmesan over the top and add freshly cracked pepper.

This is a brilliant dish on so many fronts. It's super-tasty, and the brightness of good hot chillies goes really well with the smooth broccoli flavour. It's also really healthy, with a huge hit of vitamins C, K and A. The speed of the dish is a plus, and with a crisp white wine it's a real palate-pleaser.

Without the broccoli, it's also a classic pasta dish in its own right.