So, first actual entry in the notebook!

Say, imagine you have that piece of broccoli in your fridge. Now, for some reason, broccoli has a very bad reputation when it comes to tasty foods. Typically this refers to plain unadorned broccoli boiled or steamed, or somewhat dressed up broccoli… boiled or steamed, just with some extra sauce. It’s kind of silly really, when it’s so surprisingly easy to make broccoli taste good, with minimum effort too.

What you should do with that chunk of green stuff is:

1. Slice it. Make big slices where you can, and the small pieces just cut them in half or so.

2. Give it a good wash, then drain excess water. What you’d want to do with these, actually, is to grill them. However, we will make do with a frying pan, with a minimum amount of oil at medium heat.

3. Leave it there for a bit, turn it regularly, let it cook until you start getting nicely crispy leaves. The most important thing is to make sure the “trunk” does get cooked, as it’s the harder part. Patience! And don’t try to hurry it up.

4. Once the broccolis is like that, it’s ready. Take it out of the pan and put it in a plate, dish, tray, or whatever you have handy.

5. Now the only thing you are going to add to this. Take some good extra-virgin olive oil, and pour a bit all over the broccoli. Then, sprinkle with some salt. What we want to achieve is to have a contrast between the taste of the vegetable, the slightly sharp bite of the extra-virgin olive oil, and to make the whole thing savoury with enough salt. Don’t overdo either, but we want the taste of the olive oil to be noticeable, and to be ever so slightly salty.

6. And that’s all! Yup, that’s right, couldn’t be simpler. Now, you may think you know what broccoli tastes like, but unless you’ve tried this, I wouldn’t be so sure. This simple combo tastes nothing like the crappy green goo one gets after boiling the poor thing.  Serve hot!

Now, this mis more of a sidedish than a main, goes well with a meat or something pretty solid. But since I wanted a light meal – in preparation to stuffing my face a few hours later when going for dinner with some friends – I just added a bit of salad and called it a day.

Enjoy!