Orecchiette with Broccoli, Roasted Garlic, Mushrooms & Caramelized Onions

and toasted pine nuts, fresh basil, in a lemon butter sauce.......

Figured the name of the pasta was too long to be a title, because all ingredients are important in this pasta, not just the 4 main ones.

Well I was trying to come up with a pasta to make with Orecchiette and Broccoli - something light and vegetarian.. I was having dreams of the orecchiette and broccoli rabe dish I'd had from Savarino's Cucina (a little italian place in Nashville) and wanted to take the concept but make it something different. So after a little internet research, I came across a few ideas and ended up with this dish. It's a tad time consuming due to the nature of the ingredients, but it's super easy and very tasty and I've already made it twice this week!

Orecchiette with Broccoli, Mushrooms, & Light Lemon Butter Sauce
serves 4

• 1lb orecchiette pasta
• 2T veg. oil - or olive oil
• 1-2c broccoli, cut into bite size florets (depends on how much broccoli you like)
• 1/2lb cremini mushrooms
• 1 small vidalia onion (or sweet onion if you're not a southerner)
• 1 head of garlic, roasted*
• 1/4c pine nuts
• 1 lemon
• 2-3T butter
• a small chunk of parmigiano cheese
• fresh basil
• salt & pepper

1. In a dry skillet over medium heat, toast pine nuts, about 5 minutes. WATCH THESE CAREFULLY. If you walk away and forget - you've ruined your pine nuts. You want them to turn a nice golden brown.
2. Chop up your onion into medium size pieces. Using the same skillet you toasted the pine nuts in, let the pan cool down a little and then add about 1T of oil to the skillet and throw in the onions. Season with some salt & pepper (I actually add about a 1/2t of sugar to help with the caramelization). Cook the onions until they start to get nice and soft and a nice golden color. While these are cooking, wash and slice your mushrooms.. Once the onions have started to turn a golden color, add a little more oil and add in the mushrooms. Season again with salt & pepper. Continue to cook for about 10 minutes, so mushrooms have caramelized with the onions.
   
3. While you're cooking the onions & mushrooms, heat up your pot of water for the pasta and in a smaller saucepan, steam the broccoli florets until tender. Once the water for the pasta has come to a boil, salt the water generously and add in the pasta. Cook until al dente (about 13 minutes). Drain pasta and return the pasta back into the hot pot. Zest the lemon over the pot, throw in the butter, and squeeze half the lemon over the pot - you may use more if your lemon is small, but I found I didn't want the lemon to over power the dish, so I only used half a lemon.. Stir together until butter has melted. If you want, you can save 1/4c pasta water and add it in, it will help make the sauce a little "thicker". At this point, grate some fresh parmigiano cheese over the pasta - about 2 tablespoons should suffice. Stir to melt the cheese. Chop up the roasted garlic and add it to the pasta - also add in your broccoli, caramelized onions/mushrooms, and toasted pine nuts. Chop up some fresh basil and add it in as well.

*to make your own roasted garlic, you can take a whole head of garlic, slice off the top of it to expose all the cloves within.. drizzle olive oil over it, wrap it in aluminum foil and put it in a 400 degree oven for roughly 30 minutes - may take more time depending on the size. The cloves should be soft when you press it. Let cool until you can safely handle it and then ease the cloves out of their skin... you can usually squeeze them out.
OR can you cheat (like we did) and buy whole cloves of roasted garlic in the prepared foods section at whole foods.


So yeah - its just kind of a cook a bunch of things then throw it all together into a pot and there's your pasta. Its pretty tasty! Well worth the effort.
Oh and don't forget to enjoy it with a nice glass of refreshing wine. mmmmmmmmmmm pinot grigio.....

Enjoy!
Posted by Lauren