Heavenly delicious: ORECCHIETTE WITH BROCCOLI & ANCHOVIES

Kook! is, according to Maarten van den Biggelaar, ‘not a cookbook, but a book about cooking’. It is not a recipe book either, although many of his favourite recipes are included. Think of it more as a culinary book of encouragement; with Kook!, Maarten wants to inspire everyone to spend more time in the kitchen. We are sharing one of his favourite recipes from this wonderful book: shell pasta with a sauce of broccoli, garlic and anchovies.

Maarten: “My son was eight months old when he ate his first solid food. A plate of orecchiette con broccoli, aglio, acciughe e peperoncino. In other words: shell pasta with a sauce of broccoli, garlic, anchovies and chillies. Okay, without the chillies, but with the garlic. My son is now 22 and we still eat it, but now with a serious kick, including the chillies.”

How to make orecchiette with broccoli and anchovies

• Pour a generous amount of olive oil into a large pan. Add the whole, peeled garlic cloves (knocked out of their skins with a firm blow) and the chillies (less hot without the seeds, spicy with them; dried works too). Let them cook gently over low to medium heat. When the garlic turns brown, remove it from the pan.
• Now add the anchovy oil first, followed by the finely chopped anchovy fillets. If you like them, add the finely chopped capers now too. Let everything simmer nicely.
• Meanwhile, cook the broccoli in salted water for about eight minutes. Scoop it out of the pan (reserve the cooking water for cooking the pasta), let the broccoli drain briefly and then add it to the anchovy mixture.
• Now cook the pasta in the broccoli cooking water, adding some water if there is not enough liquid in the pan. Mash the broccoli, anchovies and capers into a smooth sauce.
• When the pasta is ready, add three generous tablespoons of cooking water to the sauce and stir in the drained pasta so that all the shells are well coated in the sauce.
• Sprinkle Parmesan over the top and you’re done. If you find the sauce too dry, you can always add extra olive oil or cooking water.

Title: Kook!
Author: Maarten van den Biggelaar
Price: €29.99
Publisher: Podium

© Maikel Thijssen Photography

Read also:

• How to: restaurant-quality pasta in 2 steps
• How to make black pasta yourself
• Prevent pasta water from boiling over with this trick