Broccoli Alfredo

     Next to corn, broccoli is by far my favorite vegetable. It is very versatile and it can be cooked in a variety of ways. When making broccoli Alfredo, the normal way of cooking the broccoli is to add it to the water with the pasta in the last 4 minutes of cooking. I decided to go a different route and sauté it instead. Before I started on the broccoli, I got a pot of boiling water going. A quick tip for those of you who cook a lot of pasta, add about a tablespoon of olive oil to the water before it begins to boil. This keeps the pasta from sticking together. I usually use fettuccini when making Alfredo but I decided to use the box of campanelle we picked up at the store. Campanelle is a corkscrew like pasta that I hadn’t seen before. I dumped in the whole box of pasta and got that cooking.

     In a small sauce pan I emptied a jar of four-cheese Alfredo sauce by Classico. I didn’t have the time to make my own sauce, nor did I feel like spending the money to do so. Alfredo sauce like all cheese based sauces costs quite a bit to make and comes out better in larger batches. Since I was only cooking for two, going with a jar is easier and less expensive. I turned the heat on low just to heat up the sauce and stirred every few minutes to keep the sauce from burning.

     For the broccoli I used two heads worth and broke them down into bite sized pieces. In a large skillet, I heated up olive oil and some minced garlic. After thoroughly washing the broccoli, I added it to the pan. It took about 10 to 15 minutes until the broccoli was cooked through. I cut up a tomato and threw it in with the broccoli; unfortunately it fell apart because the broccoli took longer than I expected to be done. A dash of salt and pepper along with a few sprinkles of parmesan cheese finished it off. Once I drained the pasta, I added the Alfredo sauce and mixed until all the pasta was covered. I spooned out a base of pasta on each plated and topped with the broccoli and tomato.

     The pasta came out well and the sauce was as good as a jar of sauce can taste. With more time I will make my own sauce next time. The broccoli with the tomato had a cheesy-garlic taste and was melt in your mouth soft. With homemade sauce this would have been a great dish but taking short cuts only made it a good dish.

Rating: Yummy - Homemade sauce is needed.