Serves a Crowd
by: Genius Recipes
September30,2014
4.3
3 Ratings
- Serves 4 as a main dish
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Author Notes
A pasta recipe we never thought would work, and a couple tricks for getting more out of your weeknight pasta routine. Recipe adapted from The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper (Clarkson Potter, 2008). —Genius Recipes
- Test Kitchen-Approved
What You'll Need
Ingredients
- For the sauce
- Good-tasting extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 medium red onion, cut into 1/4-inch dice
- Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
- 2 ouncesGenoa salami, sliced 1/4 inch thick and cut into 3/4-inch dice
- 2 jalapeños, finely chopped (seeded if you want less heat)
- 4 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1 heaping tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 cupwater
- 1/3 cupraisins
- For the pasta
- 1 to 1 1/2 poundsbroccoli
- 1 large bunch (1 to 1 1/4 pounds) broccoli rabe
- 1 poundcavatappi, rotini, or fusilli
- 1/3 cuppine nuts, toasted
- 1 to 1 1/2 cupsshredded Stella Fontinella, Asiago, or young sheep cheese
Directions
- Bring 8 quarts salted water to a boil in a 10-quart pot.
- Peel the broccoli stalks, and cut them into 1/4-inch-thick diagonal slices. Quarter the florets. Trim the broccoli rabe stems to within an inch of where the leaves begin. Pile up the stalks and slice them into 1/4-inch pieces.
- Generously film the bottom of a straight-sided 12-inch sauté pan with olive oil, and set it over high heat. Add the onion and generous sprinkles of salt and pepper. Sauté until the onion is golden brown, stirring often. Halfway through the sauté add the salami and jalapeños. Once the onions are browned, blend in the garlic and tomato paste. Cook for 1 minute.
- Stir in 1/2 cup of the water and boil it down to nothing as you use a wooden spatula to scrape up everything from the bottom of the pan. Repeat with the remaining 1/2 cup water. Once it is boiled off, stir in the raisins and pull the pan off the heat. Cover and set aside.
- Drop the pasta into the boiling water. Cook, stirring often, for 3 minutes. Stir in the two broccolis and boil until the pasta is just tender. Scoop 1/2 cup of the pasta water out of the pot and set it aside. Immediately drain the pasta and vegetables in a colander.
- Reheat the onion sauté over medium-high heat. Blend in the reserved pasta water, and add the pasta and vegetables and the pine nuts. Toss over the heat for 1 to 2 minutes, or until the pasta is lightly coated with the moistened sauté. Taste the pasta for seasoning. Turn it into a serving bowl. Pass the cheese separately.
Tags:
- Pasta
- Vegetable
- Broccoli
- Pine Nut
- Raisin
- Serves a Crowd
- Fall
- Winter
- Entree
See what other Food52ers are saying.
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Nancy
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KirstenS
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mizerychik
-
Coing
Recipe by: Genius Recipes
Popular on Food52
20 Reviews
Nancy June 9, 2017
Nope! I made this exactly as written. Super underwhelmed! Not getting the great reviews here. Nobody liked this. I mean... it had virtually no flavor for me. Not enough Genoa, 2 OZ?? for all that pasta! Even as a flavoring it wasn't enough and not enough sauce!. The sauce smelled great but sorry, this was just probably the weakest dish I've made in a LONG while. Just my opinion.
cream C. November 17, 2014
This was outstanding. I ran out of golden raisins so I added dried cranberries; I substituted parmesan for Asiago and Thai chili peppers for jalapeños. My pantry failed to produce pine nuts so I skipped them entirely. The recipe made a TON of pasta - far more than 4 servings which is just fine with me since I like to freeze portions for future consumption anyway. I reheated a portion for lunch at work today and it was even better than last night. Definitely a repeat.
KirstenS October 8, 2014
OMG this is delicious. I often have salami on hand for weekend lunches -- I used soppresata instead of genoa -- and I always love broccoli raabe and sausage pasta, but adding the tomato paste just took it up a notch. YUM.
darceyh October 6, 2014
So simple and yet amazingly gratifying. The flavor combination was delightful. I am going to try it with bacon or pancetta next time.
Patricia October 5, 2014
Just made this recipe and it is wonderful.
kc718 October 3, 2014
I seldom comment or review, but have lately vowed to be a better internet citizen. I must therefore emphasize that this is a fantastic recipe. Made it tonight, exactly as written, but for my box of pasta being 12oz, and probably doubling the salami, which stil seemed fine. Can already tell my husband will be requesting that "fantastic broccoli pasta" in future. Will probably have to arm wrestle over the leftovers :-)
mizerychik October 1, 2014
Would it be worth trying this recipe without the pine nuts? I'm allergic, so I can't add them, and since this seems very dependent on specific flavor combinations, I don't want to waste the ingredients if it would ruin the dish.
Janae October 2, 2014
That's really what I want to know too. I need to do this without salami or a salami sub, but if it ruins the dish...I don't even want to try/waste it.
Kristen M. October 3, 2014
There's enough great flavor and texture going on here, you won't really miss the pine nuts, or even the salami -- you'll just want to play around with the seasoning to taste. Toasted breadcrumbs would be great here for crunch too.
Janae October 6, 2014
Thanks Kristen
Patricia October 6, 2014
I think that you can remove the pine nuts. There is a lot of tastes going on in this recipe that makes it wonderful!
Coing October 1, 2014
This is excellent!!
May I suggest that the directions would be easier to follow if you say to cook the onion some first, then add the peppers and salami, then continue to cook until golden.
Janae October 1, 2014
Is there any substitution for salami?
Kristen M. October 3, 2014
You could just omit it, although a little extra olive oil, salt, and a bit of smoked paprika would help make up for its absence.
Janae October 6, 2014
Do you bacon would be a good substitute?
GayPDXCooks October 1, 2014
The recipe ingredient list is missing the broccoli.
Jeanne October 1, 2014
Isn't one of the broccoli's is missing from the recipe?
Kristen M. October 1, 2014
Yes! Good eye. It's back now.
GayPDXCooks October 1, 2014
Still not in the ingredient list.
Kristen M. October 1, 2014
It should be 1 to 1 1/2 pounds broccoli. (Sometimes it takes a few minutes to update.)
