What to do with purple sprouting broccoli?

Now the weather has improved, I've been using the last couple of weeks to make some headway in the vegetable garden. This had been abandoned slightly over winter, as my working hours meant that from about November I didn't get the chance to see the garden in daylight! However a wonderful surprise was the appearance of some purple sprouting broccoli which had done remarkably well while left to it's own devices! This begged the question - what to do with it?

Of course broccoli is lovely just as a side dish - but I wanted to try something a bit more interesting and remembered this idea of using it with a creamy pasta sauce. This dish was a bit of an experiment as I was trying to use up lots of bits and pieces in the fridge - including a lovely block of taleggio cheese (reduced from £2.25 to 25p! Thank you Sainsburys!) and fresh filled pasta (reduced to 15p from Morrisons!) but it worked so well that I thought I'd share it. As an added bonus, I made enough sauce for a second dish (Well I do love a bargain!)  

Ingredients:

• Splash of olive oil
• 1 Onion - finely chopped
• 2 Cloves of smoked garlic - chopped (I'm sure unsmoked would work just as well)
• 150 ml white wine (I'm sure vegetable stock would be ok if you don't want to use wine)
• 250g block of taleggio DOP cheese - chopped into chunks
• 150ml double cream
• 200g purple sprouting broccoli
• Spinach and ricotta filled ravioli (although any pasta would be fine)

Instructions:

• Gently heat the olive oil in a pan.
• Add the onion and garlic and cook until softened.
• Add the wine and cook for about 5 minutes.
• Add the cheese and stir until melted.
• Add the cream and simmer for about 10 minutes or until the sauce has thickened.
• Meanwhile, boil the broccoli and pasta until tender. Drain and combine with the sauce.

This made more than enough sauce for just the two of us, so I retained half and served it the next day with mushrooms sauteed in a touch of home made garlic infused oil, and plain old pasta twists. 

I hope this gives you a new idea for something to do with a glut of broccoli! (Sorry I've no photo's of the finished product - unfortunately I was far too eager to eat it and forgot!)

Enjoy x