With so many of friends suffering from some kind of nasty, lingering cold virus the past couple of weeks, I thought I’d republish my favorite quick pasta dish: Pasta with broccoli rabe and red pepper. I also believe it to be the best-cold busting, immune system building mean you make. Traditionally, it’s made with orecchiette, but if that’s hard to find (as is the case in my hood) shells will do. Put your pot of pasta water on the stove. While you’re waiting for it boil, roughly chop a bunch of broccoli rabe, set aside. Then, chop four to six garlic cloves very finely. Add pasta to boiling water, set timer as per al dente instructions. When there’s about five minutes left, add broccoli rabe to the pasta pot. Meanwhile, heat up a few tablespoons of extra virgin. When it’s sizzling, add garlic, and cook until just before it turns golden. Remove from heat. Drain pasta and broccoli rabe, and then add them to the pan with the oil and garlic. Turn the flame on to very low, toss for minute on low heat, sprinkle with a handful of good red pepper flakes. Serve with fresh parmesan. never fails. — Angela M.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008 at 8:02 am and is filed under cooking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.