RECIPE Mamma Antonietta's best pasta sauce: Sicilian broccoli pasta.

Here is a simple and delicious recipe of a fantastic and rarely know pasta dish:

Main course for four people.
Get
+ 500 gr of our Maccheroni Martelli
+ 500 gr broccoli (better broccolini, now is the season!)
+ 2 anchovy fillets
+ red hot chilli pepper
+ salt
+ 1 garlic clove
+ parmesan
+ 1 small spoonsfull of pine nuts
+ 1 big spoonfull of raisins.

Boil enough water to cook the pasta in your beloved pot. Once the water starts boiling (only then!) add salt and then the broccoli (only the flower heads) and let the veg cook for about 10 minutes. Make sure not to over cook the broccoli, they must be still a bit hard. In the meantime, keep the raisins in a bowl with water to let them get softer for about 5 minutes, then dry out the water. When ready, take out the broccoli and put them in a plate. In the same water start cooking the pasta. Sauce: pour a bit of our extra virgin olive oil on a large pan and add the anchovy fillets and the garlic. The anchovies will melt in the hot oil and the garlic will get soon “blonde”. Once the garlic is toasted take it out and add as much as you like hot pepper (crushed or whole) together with the cooked broccoli. After 3 minutes add raisins and pine nuts, the sauce is done! In the meantime the pasta will be ready al dente. Mix the pasta for a few extra minutes in the pan together with the sauce. Just before serving top with sliced parmesan. You are practically a sicilian chef now.

DID YOU KNOW? Broccoli is a member of the cabbage family, and is closely related to cauliflower. Its cultivation originated in Italy. Broccolo, its Italian name, means "cabbage sprout." Because of its different components, broccoli provides a range of tastes and textures, from soft and flowery (the floret) to fibrous and crunchy (the stem and stalk). Oh yes.

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