A simple meal

It may look a bit lopsided, but it tasted good. I stuck to the game plan mentioned in the previous post. The fresh-frozen pasta from Ohio City Pasta is always a treat. Even though it's vegan, there's no missing the egg. Also, the whole wheat is perfect for the wide ribbons of pasta. There's no hint of the mushiness that could be present with similarly shaped fresh pasta noodles, and it had a great texture to the bite. It's a pretty straightforward meal, so there's not much else to say about it.

Ingredients:
- Pasta (I like the wide noodles with the large broccoli florets.)
- Broccoli, cut to your liking (Fall garden broccoli is great where available. It's a small silver lining to the fast approaching Cleveland winter.)
- Butter
- Parsley, chopped
- Parmesan
- Salt and pepper
Method:
- Bring a good amount of salted water to a boil
- Once the to be pasta water is about at a boil, preheat a pan large enough to hold all the ingredients
- Once the pan is hot, add enough water to make a small puddle in the pan and add the broccoli and some salt
- Turn the broccoli to get it wet all around
- Cover the pan and steam the broccoli until it just short of where you want it
- Remove broccoli from pan, but leave the small amount of green tinted water remaining
- If/when the big pot of water is boiling, add the pasta (Straight from the freezer in my case.)
- Add butter to the pan of broccoli water and mix together
- Add some hot, starchy pasta water to butter/broccoli water mix
- Drain pasta when ready and add it to starchy water/butter/broccoli water mix over a medium heat
- Add broccoli to mix and stir
- Add parsley to mix and stir again
- Turn off heat and grate Parmesan into the pan with everything in it
- Add salt and pepper to taste
- Mix well and serve

With a good pasta and large pieces of broccoli this makes a very satisfying meal. Also, the sauce is just to coat--there should be none left in the pan and none draining off the pasta on the plate. With fresh pasta, and the addition of the starchy pasta water to the sauce, it shouldn't be a problem for the sauce to hold together and cling well.