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.