This pasta con broccoli recipe is an easy to make and tasty broccoli pasta dish you will make over and over again.
A great broccoli and garlic recipe too. What a delicious – and healthy – combination!
The broccoli has amazing health properties and is a vegetable we should be eating on a very regular basis. Look here for info on why broccoli is so healthy for us.
Easy pasta recipes are wonderful weeknight dinners. They can be ready in under 30 minutes and everyone loves them. Can’t beat that!
Pasta Con Broccoli Recipe
Ingredients
- 12 ounces pasta, penne, fusilli and rigatoni work well
- 3 cups broccoli spears, 1 bunch or equivalent amount of frozen broccoli spears
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 4 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon lemon rind, grated
- 1/4 cup lemon juice, usually about the juice of 1 lemon
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 1/2 cup chicken stock, or vegetable stock
- 2 1/2 cups milk
- 1 sweet red pepper, diced, or 1 medium tomato, diced
- Parmesan cheese, grated
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Cook pasta according to directions in large pot of salted water. Cook until just under done, or al dente (about 10 minutes). Stir in broccoli. Let stand for under a minute and drain. Empty into a bowl and set aside.
- Melt the butter in the same pot. Add the garlic and onion, and cook over medium heat, for about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally, until onions are golden. Add lemon juice and cook, stirring, until lemon juice is almost evaporated.
- Sprinkle flour over the onion mixture and cook for 1/2 minute. Gradually add stock, stirring, then milk and lemon rind. Add salt and pepper and red pepper. Cook for about 3 minutes, until sauce begins to thicken.
- Add drained pasta and broccoli. Continue to cook until pasta is hot and the sauce has thickened. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese to serve.
Nutrition
Variations:
- Turn this pasta con broccoli recipe into a completely vegetarian pasta recipe by substituting vegetable stock for the chicken stock.
- Cut up a boneless chicken breast and sauté until not quite done. Add to the recipe before you add the lemon juice.
- Use low fat milk to reduce the fat content. This isn’t a high fat dish but if you are really concerned, use low fat milk. Keep in mind that it will not thicken quite as easily.
- Turn this into a shrimp pasta recipe by simply replacing the chicken with shrimp. If you are using cooked shrimp, add them near the end and just cook for a couple of minutes to heat them through.
This pasta con broccoli recipe is one of several great broccoli recipes you will find here.
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Here is a comment left by a visitor to the older version of the site:
Very Nice Broccoli Pasta Recipe
by Kathleen
(near Montreal)
I made the broccoli pasta last night. It tasted good and was very pretty too. I used a red and yellow pepper for extra colour. I stirred in a 1/2 cup of parmesan at the end. I used veggie broth, as one of my daughters is a vegetarian. We’ll make this again. (No problem with the lemon taste as one reader noted. It was perfectly balanced.)