Broccolini is the vegetable that gets hotter and tastier the more you punish it in a hot pan.
Why you are cooking this tonight
Broccolini is the vegetable that gets hotter and tastier the more you punish it in a hot pan. Ten minutes in a cast iron with smoking olive oil and it comes out with the stems sweet and tender and the florets black-tipped and crisp. A crush of garlic, a spoon of chilli oil, a squeeze of lemon. Done.
This is the side that makes a steak look serious, turns a pasta into a dinner, sits beside a roast chicken on a Sunday, and is honestly good enough to eat straight from the pan while you finish cooking everything else. A bunch of broccolini is six dollars at any greengrocer and feeds four people.
Notes on method
Get the pan ripping hot before anything goes in. Don’t move the broccolini around – let the florets char. Finishing salt goes on after, not before.
What to pour with it
With a steak or lamb, a glass of McLaren Vale shiraz. Alongside pasta, Yarra pinot or a fiano. For cocktails, a Negroni – the bitter herbaceous lift matches the char.
The recipe
Ingredients
Method
- Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Blanch broccolini for 60 seconds. Drain and pat dry with a tea towel.
- Heat a heavy frypan or cast iron over high heat until smoking. Add 2 tbsp olive oil.
- Lay broccolini in a single layer. Don't move for 2 minutes - let it char. Flip, char the other side for 2 minutes.
- Push broccolini to one side, lower heat to medium. Add remaining olive oil and garlic. Cook 30 seconds until fragrant.
- Toss everything together with lemon zest, juice and a pinch of salt.
- Tip onto a serving plate. Spoon chilli oil across. Scatter parmesan, almonds and cracked pepper. Serve immediately.
Nutrition
Two things that go wrong
You didn’t blanch first.
Raw broccolini in a hot pan goes black on the outside and stays raw in the stem. A 60-second blanch in salted boiling water sets the green colour and partly cooks the stems, so the char-and-finish in the pan only takes a few minutes.
Your pan wasn’t smoking hot.
Char needs serious heat. The pan should ripple and barely-smoke before the broccolini goes in. Don’t move the florets for the first two minutes, leave them in contact with the metal so they pick up colour.
Variations worth knowing
With anchovy and garlic
Mash 4 anchovy fillets into the olive oil before tossing the broccolini. Adds savoury umami that takes it past side dish into main territory.
Lemon and tahini
Drizzle with tahini thinned with lemon juice and water in place of chilli oil. Salty-creamy-bright.
Sesame and ginger
Add a tablespoon of grated ginger to the pan with the garlic, finish with toasted sesame seeds and a splash of soy.
Leftovers and make ahead
Cold charred broccolini is one of the best things to throw on a sandwich the next day, or chop and add to a pasta with anchovy and garlic. Refrigerate in a sealed container for up to two days. The chilli oil will deepen overnight and make the leftovers even better.
You might also like
Recipe
The Proper Aussie Beetroot Burger
Why you should cook this The Aussie burger is the only burger format that openly admits to being a structural disaster. Beef pattie, melted tasty cheese, fried egg,…
Read the recipe →
Recipe
Pork & Cabbage Dim Sims (Aussie Style)
The Australian-Chinese fish-and-chip-shop dim sim. Why you should cook this Dim sims are the Australian-Chinese fish-and-chip-shop classic that nobody outside Australia has heard of and that everyone inside…
Read the recipe →
Recipe · Baking
Vegemite & Cheese Scrolls
Why you should cook this The lunchbox classic that you remember as the highlight of grade four and that, when you make them yourself as an adult, you…
Read the recipe →
Recipe
Savoury Cheese & Bacon Muffins
School lunchbox classic, grown-up version. Why you should cook this The lunchbox muffin that actually holds together. Cheddar, crispy bacon, spring onion, a fold of self-raising and a…
Read the recipe →