Organic Shopping and Cooking

I love cooking; I took four years of culinary arts classes in high school. my mother loves to have me use up ingredients in the fridge when I come home. This weekend, we had some organic broccoli in the fridge, so I decided to do a completely organic entrée dish. I googled "organic broccoli recipes" and I found one entitled "Fresh Herb Organic Broccoli Tossed with Pasta, Toasted Pine Nuts & Parmesan Cheese". The recipe calls for olive oil, organic garlic, organic broccoli, white wine, organic chicken stock (or vegetable if you are going vegetarian), pine nuts, organic lemon, Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper, and various fresh herbs (I used basil and oregano and Italian parsley). The skill level of the dish was very easy and my family loved it (except for my fourteen year old brother who will not touch anything green). I brought the recipe to school and am planning on cooking it during exams for my friends that I live with.

Ingredients:

6 tablespoons olive oil
6 garlic cloves
1 1/2 lb Broccoli, cut into florets and small stem pieces
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup of pine nuts
1 cup fresh herbs
juice of 1 lemon
1/2 cup of parmesan cheese

salt and pepper

Method:

Cut broccoli from the stems and into small florets. Trim and shave off dry ends stems (if necessary) and slice thin.

Heat olive oil over medium high heat. Add garlic, broccoli, white wine, and chicken stock to pan and pinch of salt and pepper to taste. Simmer 30-45 minutes over medium high heat until fork-tender and broccoli is falling apart.

While broccoli is simmering, toast pine nuts in a dry pan over medium low heat
until fragrant, 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat and cool.

Once broccoli is done, combine it in the food processor with pine nuts, herbs, lemon juice, and parmesan cheese. Blend until slightly chunky.

Toss broccoli mix with cooked pasta, add olive oil (if necessary) to loosen it up a bit. Taste for seasoning.

Serve and enjoy!