It's a great moment when you stop thinking about stews and soups and start thinking about what the warmer weather has to offer.
This dish is the perfect spring recipe, and the beauty of it is that the whole thing only takes about 20 minutes to cook from start to finish.
It tastes absolutely fucking delish and is best eaten out on a terrace when the sun is shining!
All simple enough ingredients to get. Try and get really good tomatoes because that will make all the difference. If they don't have the purple sprouting broccoli get the normal stuff but it is worth shopping around because it tastes awesome.
Slice up the red onions and chop the shit out of the garlic.
Lash on a frying pan and on a nice low heat get them simmering away with a little olive oil.
Quarter up the tomatoes.
Using the knife get rid of the pulp and leave just the flesh in there.
When the onions and garlic are getting soft, fuck in the tomatoes. The house should be smelling amazing at this stage.
Pick the basil leaves away from the stalks. A good big handful is essential so don't be shy with it.
You'll also want to get the parmesan grated. Rip the parma ham into shreds using your hands and clean up the broccoli by getting rid of any of the big thick stalks.
Lash on the pasta at this stage. Follow the instructions on the package but it should only take 2 minutes tops to cook the fresh stuff.
Throw the broccoli in with the pasta water. Saving on cleaning up at this stage!
Strain them both off when done and throw them in with the tomatoes in the sauce.
Lash in the ham, parmesan and basil at this stage just before serving it all up.
Make sure you toss the pasta through everything as you want it to be evenly coated and all the strands of pasta tasting equally delicious.
Serve it up immediately and admire the work you have done. You could totally be a professional chef if you keep this up!
This is Italian cooking at its most simple and best but you're relying on the quality of the ingredients, so splash out on them as much as you can! Eating this al fresco with a chilled glass of white wine eating is a sure-fire way to tell that the horrible winter is gone and we are in for a long beautiful summer. Life is good when you eat like this!
