I'm never at a loss for inspiration when it comes to cooking and baking. Besides reading and editing recipes all day every day at work and reading numerous food blogs, I subscribe to a whole bunch of food sites so I'm constantly bombarded with emails from them with new recipes to try. The other day I got one of these emails from Real Simple; it featured a quick and easy recipe for pasta with turkey and broccoli. Something about the picture sucked me in, and pretty soon I was tweaking the recipe in my head and making a mental shopping list.
The dish looked like it could end up being a little dry (there was only oil used to moisten it), so I figured some crushed tomatoes would fix that (and enable me to cut some of the oil). I also wanted to add another veggie and chose to throw in an orange bell pepper. I haven't gotten Jeff into ground turkey yet, so I swapped in some ground pork instead. For extra flavor, I added an onion. In the end we had a pasta dish that was still quick and easy to make but turned up a notch with lots of veggies and flavor.
Orecchiette With Pork And Broccoli (adapted from Real Simple)
Ingredients
1 pound orecchiette
1 (14.5-ounce can) crushed tomatoes
1/2 pound broccoli crowns, cut in florets
1 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, diced
1 bell pepper, cut in strips, then in thirds
1 pound ground pork
1 garlic clove, minced
Kosher salt and crushed red pepper flakes
Shaved Parmesan, for serving
Preparation
Cook orecchiette according to package directions. Drain and return to pot. Stir in crushed tomatoes, and set aside.
Steam broccoli for about 3 minutes. (You can also throw the broccoli in with the pasta during the last minute of cooking. I preferred steaming the broccoli so I could be sure it would stay crisp.) Set broccoli aside.
Meanwhile, heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion, and cook for 1 minute. Add bell pepper, and cook for 1 additional minute. Add pork and cook, breaking up with a spoon, for 3 minutes, then stir in garlic. Continue cooking until pork is no longer pink. Season with salt and red pepper flakes.
Transfer orecchiette to a large bowl, and toss with pork mixture and broccoli.
Serve with Parmesan and season with salt to taste.
Where do you get your recipe inspiration?