There is something mathematically satisfying about a romanesco. The spiralling florets follow the Fibonacci sequence with an almost unsettling precision – nature doing geometry for its own amusement. Most vegetables don’t demand to be looked at before they’re eaten. This one does.
The question, then, is what to do with something so architecturally perfect. The answer, I think, is to keep it simple enough that the vegetable remains the point, but interesting enough that the dish earns its place at the table. Southern Italian cooking has always understood this balance. In Puglia, orecchiette with broccoli or cime di rapa is a peasant dish elevated by restraint: good olive oil, garlic, a whisper of chilli, and the pasta itself, those little ear-shaped cups that catch the florets and hold the sauce.
Romanesco is a brassica like its brasher cousins broccoli and cauliflower, but sweeter and more delicate – nuttier, somehow, with none of that sulfurous edge you sometimes get from an overcooked cauliflower. It wants a gentler treatment. So I blanch rather than roast, keeping that pale green colour and the structural integrity of the spirals intact.
The black garlic is my addition. Fermented garlic – aged for weeks until it turns soft and dark, with a flavour somewhere between molasses and aged balsamic – brings an umami depth that compensates for the anchovy I’m leaving out today. It melts into the olive oil and coats everything in a glossy, almost-caramelised sauce that looks dramatic and tastes of nothing but patient transformation.
Time
- Prep Time : 10 minutes (including recomended time to marinade)
- Cook Time : 30 minutes
- Active Time : approximately 20 minutes
Ingredients
- 400g orecchiette
- 1 large romanesco brocolli
- 60ml extra virgin olive oil (use something good – you’ll taste it)
- 6 cloves black garlic
- 4 cloves fresh garlic
- 1 chopped red chilli, or 1/2 teaspoon of dried chilli flakes, or to your taste
- 50g pine nuts
- 40g parmesan, finely grated
- Half a lemon
- Fresh parsley, roughly chopped
- Salt to taste
Method
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Prepare the romanesco. Break it into small florets, keeping them uniform so they cook evenly, also keep the shape. Don’t discard the tender inner stem – slice it thinly.
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Toast the pine nuts. Warm a dry frying pan over medium-low heat and add the pine nuts. They burn with vindictive speed, so stay with them, shaking the pan frequently. Once they’re golden and fragrant – two to three minutes – tip them onto a plate immediately.
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Prepare the garlic. Thinly slice the fresh garlic. Take the black garlic cloves and mash them into a rough paste with the flat of your knife. They should be soft and sticky, almost like a thick jam.
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Boil the water. Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. Salt it generously – it should taste like the sea. This is not negotiable.
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Blanch the romanesco. Add the florets to the boiling water and cook until just tender but still with bite – about three minutes. Lift them out with a slotted spoon or spider and immediately put into ice cold water to stop the cooking. Keep the salted water boiling; you’ll use it for the pasta.
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Cook the pasta. Add the orecchiette to the same water and cook until al dente (or to your preference). Before draining, reserve a couple of cups of the starchy pasta water. You’ll need it.
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Build the sauce. While the pasta cooks, heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium-low heat. Add the sliced fresh garlic and let it soften gently – you want it translucent and sweet, not coloured. Add the black garlic paste and the chilli flakes, stirring to dissolve the black garlic into the oil. The sauce will turn dark and glossy. Don’t be alarmed; this is correct.
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Add the blanched romanesco to the pan and toss to coat in the garlicky oil. When the pasta is ready, transfer it directly to the pan using a spider or slotted spoon – the clinging water helps. Add a generous splash of pasta water and toss vigorously, adding more water as needed to create a glossy, emulsified sauce that clings to everything. The starch in the water is what makes this work; without it, you just have oily pasta.
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Remove the pan from the heat. Add half the grated cheese and toss again. Squeeze over the lemon juice to brighten everything. Taste for salt – you probably won’t need more, but check.
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Divide between warmed bowls. Scatter with the toasted pine nuts, the remaining cheese, and the parsley if using. Finish with a final drizzle of your best olive oil – something grassy and peppery, if you have it.
Notes
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The black garlic will make the sauce look quite dark – almost dramatic. This is part of its charm. The flavour is sweet and deep, not at all like raw garlic. If you can’t find black garlic, you could use a balsamic reduction drizzled at the end, though the effect is different.
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If you want more textural contrast, toast some coarse breadcrumbs in olive oil with a little grated lemon zest and scatter them over the top.
Eat in good health!