Edit History

Thanks, @Chrono! Made it for my family tonight, they loved it!

On 5/26/2018 at 10:23 PM, Chrono said:

Spaghetti Aglio Olio / Spaghetti with Veggies

 

Ingredients:

• 1/2 of a medium-small broccoli floret, chopped to bite sized pieces
• 7-10 Red grape tomatoes, sliced in half
• 1 Handful of Arugula (If there is no plain arugula available to you like in my grocery store, a 50/50 garden mix works great, it is spinach and arugula. otherwise just spinach.)
• 1/4 of a cube of butter (unsalted) or 2-3 tablespoons of margarine
• Pasta (spaghetti noodles work best, linguini 2nd and angel hair 3rd.)
• White wine, preferably a Chardonnay, a good cheap option is Franzia boxed chardonnay. do not drink this, it tastes like poop when compared to any other wine, use only for cooking. I like this wine to cook with.
• Salt, Pepper, Chili Flakes
• Optional: But makes it taste a lot better is minced garlic and shallots, not a lot just enough to sweat in a pan (1/2 tsp each roughly)
• Optional: Shrimp

Cooking:

1. Blanch your broccoli ahead of time and or immediately before cooking, make sure to get as much of the excess water out as possible.
2. Heat a pan until it is almost smoking and add oil to your pan
3. Remove from heat briefly to add chili flakes, garlic, and shallots, then lightly sweat. (5-10 seconds tops)
4. Return to heat and add broccoli, toss to make sure the garlic and shallots do not burn on the bottom of the pan.
5. Lightly season with salt and pepper (you will add more later so go very light)
6. Add your tomatoes and arugula
7. Deglaze with a splash of white wine, tossing to make sure the arugula and tomatoes are coated, allowing the arugula to wilt slightly.
8. After the alcohol is cooked off, remove from heat and add your pasta, season with plenty of salt and a little more pepper.
9. Add butter and toss to coat/melt butter. Do not pre-melt your butter and do not leave flame on, this will break your butter causing the fats to separate and make your pasta taste greasy
10. Plate and enjoy. It's delicious.

If you choose to add shrimp, sautee your shrimp before you add garlic shallots and broccoli, then add all that at the same time and very quickly sweat those before adding tomatoe, arugula, and wine. You want your shrimp to be 75% cooked when you do this, as the steam from the wine will finish the cooking process.

 

This is a dish that I regularly cook at the restaurant I work at, and like to make at home. If you dont like salt and think you are putting too much, you are wrong. trust me. you want a generous seasoning of salt. try the pasta as you season it at the end to make sure it tastes "right" the butter and tomatoes really soak up a lot of the salt.

Thanks, @Chrono! Made it for my family tonight, they loved it!