A Recipe for Pasta with Broccoli Miso Sauce
From Nik Sharma's "Veg-Table"
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Hi all,
Welcome back to “that one dish!” Last Wednesday we chatted with Nik Sharma about “Veg-Table,” his new plant-forward cookbook about taking a scientific approach to getting the most flavor and use out of your vegetables. (You can find that conversation linked here if you happened to miss it).
I’m sharing this recipe out, not just because I adore pasta (when Lana Condor, in an interview with Harper’s BAZAAR, said she eats a pasta/noodle dish for dinner every day, I really felt that), but also because ”Veg-Table” is actually the first of Nik’s cookbooks to contain pasta recipes. (Wholesome news, if you ask me!) Here, broccoli florets are pre-boiled until softened, then later cooked down with miso, garlic, and Parmesan to form a delicious sauce that hugs the pasta. Miso, Nik adds, is what makes the sauce “sing with deep notes of umami. This recipe was inspired by Marcella Hazan’s sugo di broccoli e acciughe from “The Classic Italian Cookbook.”
Enjoy! We’ll chat again soon.
Pasta with Broccoli Miso Sauce
Serves 4
1 pound dried rigatoni or spaghetti
1 pound broccoli florets, cut into bite-size pieces
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons white or yellow miso paste
2 garlic cloves, grated
1 tablespoon coarsely ground black pepper
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes such as Aleppo, Maras, or Urfa
Fine sea salt
1 cup grated Parmesan
2 tablespoons chopped preserved lemon peel, rinsed and drained
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the rigatoni and cook until al dente, per the package directions. Reserve 1 cup pasta water and drain.
Meanwhile, bring another large saucepan or Dutch oven filled with salted water to a rolling boil over high heat. Add the broccoli and boil until tender, 3 to 5 minutes. Transfer to a medium bowl with a slotted spoon and discard the cooking water.
In the same saucepan you used to cook the broccoli, warm the olive oil over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the miso paste, garlic, black pepper, and red pepper flakes. Sauté until fragrant, 30 to 45 seconds. Fold in the cooked broccoli. Taste and season with salt.
Quickly fold in the hot cooked rigatoni and the Parmesan. Add ¼ cup reserved pasta water, 1 tablespoon more at a time as needed, and stir to create a glossy coating. A large portion of the broccoli will fall apart to form the sauce. Garnish with the preserved lemon peel. Serve immediately. Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Recipe adapted from “Veg-Table: Recipes, Techniques + Plant Science for Big Flavored, Vegetable-Focused Meals” by Nik Sharma. Copyright © 2023. Used with permission of Chronicle Books. All rights reserved.