Broccoli with Garlic and Pasta Cooking Disaster
“Steam-deconstructed” broccoli with pasta
Here at Turtle and Zoodle Make Stuff, we’re not going to pretend to be perfect. We’re trying new things. We’re learning new crafts. We’re experimenting with new tastes. Sometimes we screw things up. Sometimes we have a cooking disaster. We have meltdowns, or we have equipment failures.
You probably have them too. We’re here to show you that you’re not alone, other people have them too, and you’ll get through it.
This is about one of my cooking disasters.
I’ve made this dish a thousand times before. It’s a supremely easy weeknight meal. It doesn’t have very many ingredients, it’s vegan if you use the right pasta and avoid butter, and it’s delicious.
Here’s where the cooking disaster happened. Everything started out just fine. I went through all of the steps, just like normal. The only difference is that I was using a pot with a strainer built into the lid to cook the pasta. I burned myself with the pasta water, dropped the lid, and spilled the pasta all over the dirty sink.
Physical evidence of my mistake
I couldn’t just not serve dinner, so I had to cook more pasta. I didn’t want the broccoli to get cold, though, so I left the lid on while my second batch of pasta cooked.
Big mistake.
The broccoli kept cooking. It didn’t just overcook. No, the broccoli disintegrated. It pureed itself.
The funny thing is, it didn’t taste all that bad. The texture was terrible, as you can probably imagine, but the flavor wasn’t bad at all. I was horrified, and I didn’t want to eat it at all. I did document it, so you could get a good laugh and maybe forgive yourself a little bit the next time you make a mistake or two in the kitchen.
Ingredients
1 large bag broccoli florets
1 head garlic, peeled and sliced
1/2 tsp salt
2 – 3 tbsp olive oil
water
1 box pasta – I usually use whole wheat
Equipment
pasta pot
ladle
strainer
large sauté pan with lid
- Bring the water to a boil.
- Once the pasta is boiling, add the pasta to the pot.
- Heat the oil in the sauté pan over low heat.
- Add the garlic and sprinkle with salt.
- Sauté the garlic until fragrant.
Sauté the garlic.
- Add the broccoli and stir-fry to coat. You can add some crushed red pepper here. We don’t, because the Zoodle is averse to spicy food, but it would taste great.
- Splash 1 ladle full of boiling pasta water into the broccoli pan and put the lid on.
- Drain the pasta when done.
- Transfer the pasta to a bowl. Pour the broccoli and garlic mixture onto the pasta and serve hot.
