Roasted Broccolini with Gremolata
I wasn’t planning on making this side dish, but my culinary student asked if we could make this over FaceTime. Normally I teach her at my house, but due to the Covid19, we are stuck with FaceTime or Zoom. My client’s lesson was at 5pm til 6:30pm. I watched and coached her on Ina Garten’s fabulous broccoli recipe-that we adapted to our tastes a bit-more garlic and lemon zest! This dish really doesn’t take long to make and is a nice twist to just plain broccoli.
Unfortunately, my client burned the panko so we had to start all over, but in the end, success!!! It looked so yummy that when I got off the phone, I wanted to eat the same thing! Plus, it was late and I’d not even thought of what to make for dinner. I looked in my pantry for ingredients and thankfully had just enough panko. And, I had saved my lemons the other day from spoiling by zesting and juicing them… so I had plenty of frozen lemon juice and zest! Getting ingredients during this Corona Virus is a pain…. So, if you don’t have broccoli, try another veggie… eggplant? Zucchini? Tomatoes? Brussel sprouts? Play around… and my client actually didn’t have pine nuts, so for her dish, we used almonds. Luckily, I had plenty of pine nuts in the freezer. Yes, the freezer! It’s the best place to store all nuts and seeds as they stay much fresher! There is nothing worse than a rancid nut-sometimes they are already rancid at the time of purchase!
Anyway, this side dish turned out truly delicious. But then again, how could it not be – adding lemon zest and lemon juice to just about anything makes food pop with bright and wonderful flavor! Try adding zest to rice, soups, salads, and veggies… I hope you enjoy and thanks Ina!
Roasted Broccolini with Panko Gremolata
This is such a nice, bright and fresh take on roasted brocolli or brocollini
Ingredients
- 2 large bunches of brocolli/ or brocollini
- olive oil
- Maldon salt and pepper
- 2 cloves minced garlic
- 1 tbsp lemon zest-about 2-3 lemons
- juice of zested lemons
Instructions
-
Preheat oven to 400 F and place sheet tray in oven to get hot
-
Prepare brocoli or broccolini- keep leaves, they are great when charred
-
Place brocolli in a bowl and toss with olive oil, salt and pepper- roast on hot tray for about 15 minutes- I like it well charred, if you like a more aldente vegetable, than cook for 10 minutes
-
In a small saute pan over medium low heat 1.5 tablespoons olive oil and add garlic and panko for about 2 minutes, add the pine nuts for another 2 minutes by tossing often, to not let garlic burn. Remove from heat
-
When broccoli/ broccolini is cooked, add the lemon juice and then coat with the panko mixture-serve hot or at room temperature
Hi I’m Karine. This photo is me goofing off, trying to be the mid-century housewife in our kitchen in California. We now live in Detroit, Michigan –a big change and a bigger kitchen! But no matter where I live food and cooking remains my passion. I hope I can motivate you, give you ideas or share with each other food stories, cooking dreams and goals.