Jamie Oliver's Broccoli Anchovy Pasta



Last night for dinner, I decided to try a recipe from Jamie Oliver's Happy Days with the Naked Chef.

To serve 4, you need:
2 heads broccoli
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
8 anchovy fillets
2-4 small dried red chillies
4 knobs butter
1 lb pasta (he uses orecchiette, I used rotini)
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
grated Parmesan

Trim the florets from the broccoli. Finely chop some of the stem.
Put the chopped stem into a pan with the garlic, anchovies, crumbled chillies and half of the butter. Cover and cook slowly for 8-10 minutes.
Meanwhile cook the pasta and add the broccoli florets for the last 4 minutes of cooking.

Drain the pasta and broccoli, saving a little of the cooking water and toss into the other pan. Season with salt, pepper, the rest of the butter and some Parmesan. Mix well and serve.

I had never used anchovies before and so wasn't sure how it would taste. The interesting thing is that they break down during cooking but leave a subtle flavor. It was very good and even Nic liked it (he's usually a big meat eater so I wasn't sure if he would).

Definitely something I'll be making again.

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6 comments:

chili queen (clair) said...

Dropping in from Karen's The Pond. I've watched Jamie Oliver cook with those anchovies. Looks interesting but I've never tried anchovies in a can. I wonder if it'll taste the same if I use dried anchovies instead LOL.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for putting this recipe up. I love the saltiness...can you believe some people are so bland as to remove the anchovies?!
Jamie Oliver's food is great, even though I think the man himself looks grubby.

Perry said...

So glad I found this recipe--I no longer have the Jamie Oliver book it was in. Made this once for a potluck and was amazed to see it was one of those dishes that disappeared early on--and someone asked me what the secret ingredient was that made it so tasty. You guessed it--the anchovies. Thanks for posting this!!! --Perry from California

Anonymous said...

Looks like you are an expert in this field, excellent post and keep up the great work, my buddy recommended me this.

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Anonymous said...

I added some lemon juice and it was just delicious!

Raven said...

The anchovies really make this dish. Thank you for the recipe, I plan to cook this pasta and compare it to my recipe: http://www.cookeatdelicious.com/pasta-recipes/broccoli-anchovy-pasta-recipe.html