Creamy Pasta with Broccoli

First of all I would like to thank each and everyone of you for your get well wishes. I do appreciate it and makes me feel a part of a community, that although its members are scattered around the globe, they care and they do spend some of their valuable time thinking about the others. Thank you again.

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I am so overwhelmed with meat, I just want something meatless to eat. Just to get detoxicated from beef, chicken, pork and all these beautiful creatures that we sacrifice in order to eat. This was one of those times. I craved some meatless pasta and I just couldn’t go on with my life, unless I fed my appetite.

That was one heck of a pasta. Even my little picky got to eat the entire broccoli in his portion. It was creamy, it was warm and it was the perfect Sunday lunch for all three of us. Very easy to make and with a success guaranteed. You can make this on weekdays too.

Unfortunately for me there were no leftovers, so next day I didn’t have any excuse and returned back to my diet program. This is so sad. All week I try to refrain from food eating salads and light snacks and it is only during the weekends that I get to eat normal food as a normal human being. As the years go by, I see my metabolism from a porsche to become a mini cooper lol. So, I am constantly on a diet. But this is certainly not a diet meal and I loved every single bite. Now that I am thinking about it diet has at least one good thing, you tend to appreciate a meal like that more than what you did before, just like I did with this creamy pasta dish.

Boil the broccoli, if they are frozen for 3 minutes, if they are fresh until they start becoming soft, but not too much because they will be cooked further in our procedure.

Drain them and rinse them with cold water, so as to keep their vivid green color.

In a small skillet melt the 2 tbsp of margarine in medium heat and add the minced garlic.

Cook for couple of minutes and then throw this to the broccoli and toss to incorporate. Set aside.

In a pot cook pasta according to your liking.

In a big pot in medium heat add the 30 gr. of margarine to melt. When melted add the flour and stir for a minute.

Add the warm milk and let it cook stirring constantly until it becomes thick.

Add the salt and nutmeg and continue to stir.

When it thickens remove from fire and add the egg. Before adding it you must have brought the egg to the same temperature with the batter by adding couple of spoons from the batter to the egg and whisk.

Bring to fire again and add the crème fraiche. Whisk to incorporate and then add the gouda and the half portion of the mozzarella. Whisk and allow some time for the cheese to melt. Add the bacon and lastly add the broccoli. Stir gently to incorporate all these in the batter. Throw the pasta and mix.

Butter a Pyrex around 40x20 cm. and throw the broccoli/pasta mixture in it.

Spread the parmesan along with the bread crumbs on top and bake for about 15 minutes or until golden on top.

You can serve this pasta omitting the last phase which is the gratinizing, but I like my pasta to pass from the oven before it is served. It makes a beautiful golden crust on top which is gorgeous.

It was delicious and even my picky son ate it all including the broccoli. By the end of the day there were no leftovers, something very unfortunate for me since I was counting on those for my next day’s lunch at work. Life’s hard what can I say.