Angel Hair Pasta w/ Broccolini & Tangy Lemon Sauce
It was “Meatless Monday” again in our home and usually it is my favorite day of the week to get creative. Because of the limited types of vegetables that I safely consume, I look for ways to make them more exciting and pair them with different flavors. However, I spent the day making extracts and figuring out what to do with a shipment of fresh yuzu fruit that when it came time for dinner, I was spent. It almost became a day of grabbing some premade sauce and pouring it over some boxed pasta, but then I remembered I had bunches of broccolini in the refrigerator that was begging to be used.
Chinese Kale called Gai Ian in Cantonese or Jie Ian in Mandarin
Broccolini is also called “baby broccoli” but, despite it’s name, don’t confuse it with an infant version of broccoli or While it is a cousin, broccolini is the delicious result of cross breeding between broccoli and Gai Ian aka Chinese Kale. Chinese Kale is a leafy vegetable that has a sweetness to it, unlike the bitterness that accompanies many other leafy greens. How does it taste? Well, like a mellower, slightly sweet broccoli that has a tender crisp bite to the long stems when cooked well.
If you were to ask my husband what sauce I should make if having a pasta and broccoli adjacent veg, he would automatically say “Alfredo Sauce” and while that was certainly a quick option to whip up from scratch, it was just not got to pair with my mood that day. While Alfredo based dishes are delicious, to me, they tend to be heavy and make me want to go to sleep. So in wandering into the kitchen to see the tower of lemons bursting out of the fruit and veggie basket on the counter and I had what I wanted to make.
Now the hard part? How to marry what my palette was craving with something suitable for my mother to enjoy. She hasn’t been a fan of strong citrus flavors as of late. To make a long story short, and I didn’t reinvent the wheel as I’m sure there are many similar recipes out there, I attempted to hit the wants of each of the adults in the household by combining the zippy lemon that I was craving with Parmesan for my husbands unhealthy obsession with Alfredo and balancing the sharp flavors with cream and pasta water to mellow things out for Mom…. trifecta!
I hope you enjoy this filling, zippy and quick meal that can be on the table in 20 minutes.
Recipe Card
Note: I highly suggest having a digital scale in your kitchen. It takes the guesswork out and makes baking recipes a lot more successful. All of my recipes are written in metric weights. If you do not have a scale and need to convert a recipe or ingredient to volume, you can use the buttons to the right and copy /paste the recipe into the handy recipe conversion tool or the single ingredient conversion.
Angel Hair Pasta with Broccolini and Tangy Lemon Sauce
Ingredients
Method
- Prepare sauce ingredients by adding the lemon juice, 3/4 of the zest, cream, basil, pepper and Parmesan cheese to a small bowl, whisk until thoroughly combined, and set aside.
- Heat a large pot full of water according to pasta directions adding 1 tablespoon of salt per quart of water.
- While you wait for the water to boil, heat the olive oil in a large heavy bottomed skillet on medium heat.
- Add the sliced onion and sauté until it just starts to soften, about 2 minutes.
- Add the broccolini to the skillet and toss with the onion and olive oil. If it had become dry, add a drizzle more of olive oil and cook for another 3-5 minutes until the onions become translucent and start to brown.
- Cover the skillet and continue to cook for another 5 minutes,
- Add the pasta to the now boiling water and cook for 4-5 minutes only.*
- While the pasta is boiling, remove the broccolini and onions from the skillet and set aside and turn up the heat of the skillet to medium high.
- Add the white wine and deglaze the pan and reduce for 1-2 minutes.
- Lower the heat back to medium and add the lemon mixture, whisking to break up the cheese as much as possible. Add 4 ounces of the pasta water, stirring to combine.
- When the pasta is ready, transfer it into the skillet, tossing it to combine with the sauce.
- Add the broccolini and onions back to the skillet and toss to combine.
- Cook for another few minutes as the sauce thickens. If the sauce thickens a bit too much, add a little more pasta water to thin it out.
- Plate and sprinkle with the remaining zest divided equally and serve.
* Notes (if you see an * please check here):
- Generally, 8 fresh basil leaves would equal 1 tsp of dried basil, however, since dried basil has a very different flavor than fresh, I reduce it by half in this recipe. You can use more if you wish but take care to not add too much as the sauce will become bitter. On the flip side, feel free to add more fresh basil if you wish!
- You can substitute light cream, but it may take longer to reduce. Also, take care that your burner isn’t too high or the light cream can easily curdle.
- White pepper is best, but you can sub with black pepper but reduce it to 1/4 tsp.
- Don’t be afraid to salt your pasta water. This is how pasta gets flavored. If you taste the water, it should be noticeably salty.
- Cook your pasta to the al dente stage as per your package directions. Do not over cook as it will continue to soften when cooking with the sauce in the skillet.
- Because the sauce sets up as it cools, I like to serve it with a shot glass of the hot pasta water on the side so the diner can thin it out even more if they so choose.