This pasta is so chock full of veggies that you get an equal amount of veggie and pasta in every bite.

About the recipe

I make roasted broccolini often, but this time I thought why not make pasta out of it instead of having broccolini as a side dish like we usually do. It also meant that I didn’t have to make another main course for dinner I just added roasted broccolini to pasta and turned my pasta into a delicious, filling, and healthy dinner main course.

Broccolini Pasta with Garlic & Red Chili Flakes
makes 6-8 large servings

Ingredients:

• 1 lb broccolini
• 10 cloves garlic crushed
• 1 lb rigatoni pasta
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• Salt
• Pinch of red chili flakes or 1/2 – 1 tsp red chili flakes
• 1 tsp garlic powder

Directions to cook the broccolini:

• Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.
• Cut the florets off the broccolini and chop the stalks into small pieces. Place all the veggies on cookie sheet and drizzle with 1 tbsp olive oil and toss around to coat all the broccolini.
• Cook in oven for 10 minutes, after 10 minutes take out of oven and stir broccolini around and add 6 cloves crushed garlic. Place back in oven for 10 more minutes. After 10 minutes take the cookies sheet out of oven and stir broccolini one more time.
• Switch oven to broil and broil broccolini for 2 minutes until charred. Broccolini is ready. Set aside.

Directions to make the pasta:

• In a large pot cook pasta according to package instructions.
• While pasta is cooking, in another pot heat 1 tbsp olive oil and sauté the remaining 4 cloves crushed garlic until tender. Add pinch of red chili flakes and toast in garlic oil- 10 sec. Now add the roasted broccolini , salt, and mix in. Cook broccolini covered for 2-3 minutes.
• Add cooked pasta and toss with broccolini. Add 1 tsp garlic powder and toss again. Taste and adjust for salt.
• Pasta is ready. Serve warm

Cook’s notes: Garlic powder is an awesome flavor enhancer. Even after I use fresh garlic in my dishes, sometimes if I feel it needs an extra kick of flavor, I add garlic powder and it really transforms the dish. I think the reason for that is that garlic powder is de-hydrated garlic or garlic that has been roasted until all the moisture is removed, and then ground into a powder form. The drying of garlic really adds another dimension to it.