Two Broccolis and a "Whore"

Pasta a la puttanesca literally means pasta of the whore in Italian. This dish is a spicy, salty pasta dish that is easy to make and delicious to eat.

To make it, you cut up onion, garlic, tomatoes, black olives, and anchovies, and add capers, chopped parsley (or basil) and crushed red pepper. You sautee all the ingredients in a pan, and mix with your pasta.

Because of the ease of the pasta, I wanted to challenge myself with a side. I decided on making broccoli two ways. I made a simple and traditional roasted broccoli florets with parmesan and garlic. This dish is a classic broccoli preparation and is easy to make.

The tricky part of the meal was using the broccoli stems. I always find broccoli somewhat unwieldy to cook with because you end up getting a relatively small head of florets to go along with these big, unattractive stems.  To make use of the stems, I decided to create broccoli fritters.

I pureed the broccoli stems and mixed them with chopped garlic, salt, pepper, egg, and panko bread crumbs. I kneaded the mix until it was sticking together, patted it into small patties, and put them in the fridge to set.

Once the broccoli patties had set and felt firm enough to handle, I mixed flour, salt, pepper, and lemon zest and carefully coated the patties in the coating. I had to handle the patties very lightly so that they didn't break apart.

I let them sit for a few minutes while I heated vegetable oil in a dutch oven, and then put them in the oil, making sure not to overcrowd them. after about 3-4 minutes, I flipped them in the oil with a spatula, and cooked them for another 3 minutes.











Once they were all golden brown, I set them on a paper towel lined plate, and quickly fried some parsley in the oil as a garnish. 

The fritters came out beautifully. They were crispy on the outside and light and fluffy on the inside. I served them with a sweet and spicy mayo, mixing honey, sriracha, and mayo. A truly inventive and delicious concept for the use of broccoli stems.

The entire meal was delicious. The salty, spicy pasta went well with the warm garlicky flavor of the roasted broccoli florets. The fritters were something else. A totally new spin on an otherwise wasted portion of the vegetable. I will definitely cook them again when I buy broccoli and have not use for the stems.