Hold the anchovies!

I noticed fairly recently that I don't include a lot of vegetables in my day to day. I don't know why that is, ate loads of veggies as a child, but I guess they were never presented as 'veggies' and I never really learned to cook them myself. As an adult, I have the option of eating whatever I bloody choose to eat, and I guess my subconscious told me no veggies. Well I decided for my general health I should go against my natural instincts and really dig into some.
For me, broccoli is the ultimate veggie! And Tom includes it in a lovely dish in the Pasta chapter.

33. Orecchiette with Broccoli and Anchovies - *Pasta*
34. Frozen Summer Berries and White Chocolate Sauce - *Afters*

Now you're probably looking at the post title and at the recipe title and wondering what's up with the anchovies?! Well I'll tell you what's up! I loathe anchovies; there are no words to describe how repulsive they are to me... they are squirmy and hairy, they are the culinary equivalent of the smelly guy with greasy hair on the subway.

Ok, now that I've totally put you off eating ever again, let's talk dinner.

Tom says one should love his/her cupboard and kitchen. If I'm to love both I need to omit anchovies from my life. Maybe I am completely off (and I can imagine many of you shaking your heads) and they could be the most wonderful thing on this planet, that may be the case, but let's just agree to disagree. So, the recipe includes anchovies, but I took them out altogether.** I don't think the dish suffered at all.

This recipe is the first time I have ever eaten, or bought, orecchiette. I actually had no idea what they were. For the linguists among us, I now know they mean 'little ears' in Italian. Psst, Tom told me, right on page 26! In the intro to the Pasta chapter, Tom indicates that he really likes the De Cecco brand of pasta. Haha, check it out!


It's not some kind of telepathy thing -- it was the only brand I could find that made orecchiette!

While I had the water put on to boil in a pot, I started chopping the broccoli into small florets along with some garlic cloves. Then I put some oil and butter into a warm pan, and once these were warm as well, I added some garlic, chilli flakes, nutmeg, fresh thyme. I finally added the broccoli with a few tablespoons of water and a pinch of sea salt, and put the lid on so that the sauce could incorporate and the broccoli could steam.

That broccoli is a-steamin!

While the sauce steamed, the pasta was cooking away in its pan, and each were done at approximately the same time. I drained the pasta, and incorporated the sauce into the pasta (I forgot to add lemon juice, whoops!) and finally added some grated poorman'sgrana. And then I was all ready for my veggie love fest!



The pasta was fabulous!!! I wasn't sure what to expect but it was very fiery and flavorful. The broccoli was the perfect texture along with the orecchiette. This pasta shape will definitely make it as a regular occupant of my cupboard. Yum! And the big bonus is Rafa liked it too! Usually pasta without meat or tomato sauce is not his 'thing' but he actually enjoyed this one a lot! (He said it would have been better with anchovies! The mandatory rolling-eyes-at-annoying-hubby commenced at that point)... And that was dinner done!

Afterwards, I was feeling like something sweet, and since Rafa was noshing on gummy bears whilst studying for his final tomorrow, I knew I was on my own.

The berries/white chocolate sauce combo was mentioned to me eons ago when a lovely 'English Girl' on Nigella.com said it was a great Tom Norrington-Davies recipe. I hadn't realized at that time it was in Cupboard Love, or rather, I should note, that I would be making every single recipe in CL!

This combo is pretty popular in Tom's circle, and is really as simple as it sounds. All it involves is adding white chocolate to some bubbling heavy cream, and pouring this over some frozen summer berries. Tom says, though, that one should use 'grown-up' white chocolate. I have to agree with him; any other white chocolate would be way too sickly for my taste.

my grown-up chocolate - Ghirardelli

perfection

For some reason, the chips did not melt fully, but that was ok as they provided a lovely crunch with the strawberries. I think that is probably because they were fridge-cold. No worries, it was still lovely. Tom said that in time, the chocolate would melt the berries, and the berries would thicken the white chocolate sauce, resulting in 'carnage on a plate'.

carnage in a wine glass!

**if you want to add anchovies, do it when the broccoli is added ;)