Whether it's broccoli & pasta or pasta with broccoli, it's a great dish that combines your favorite pasta with a hearty vegetable. This recipe for broccoli pasta will be ready in no time and is a great alternative to put on your weekly rotation for dinner or as a great take to work lunch.

Made with simple ingredients, broccoli & pasta easily converts to a meal for the whole family. You can even add cheese and tomato to make this a cheesy pasta recipe with broccoli.

How to Add Fresh Broccoli to Pasta?

Adding fresh broccoli to pasta is simple really. But before you add your broccoli pasta, you should cook it. Cook your broccoli by boiling broccoli, roasting broccoli, sauteing broccoli, etc. Then add cooked broccoli to your pasta with any other ingredients such as cheese, tomato and red pepper flakes.

You will want to reserve some pasta water to combine your pasta with broccoli, grated cheese, olive oil and any other ingredients.

Pasta with Broccoli and Cherry Tomatoes in a white plate

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How to Add Fresh Broccoli to Pasta?
What to Cook with Pasta Broccoli
Is Pasta Broccoli Healthy?
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Ingredients Needed to make Pasta with Broccoli
Instructions on How to Make Pasta & Broccoli
Substitutions and Variations
Equipment
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Storage
Food Safety
Top tip
Side Dishes
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Recipe Details
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What to Cook with Pasta Broccoli

Pasta & broccoli is a hearty dish on its own. If you want to serve something with it, you can serve a chicken with sweet marsala wine, or salad like a tomato salad or a spinach with a strawberry vinaigrette.

Is Pasta Broccoli Healthy?

Broccoli is a healthy vegetable. One cup of broccoli contains 2.5 grams of protein, 6 grams of carbs, 1.5 grams of sugar, 2.3 grams of fiber and 31 calories.

Depending on what pasta you pair the broccoli with it can be healthy. If we look at the nutritional content of traditional white pasta, one cup of pasta has 8 grams of protein, 42 grams of carbs, 3 grams of fiber and about 200 calories.

Pairing the broccoli with a whole grain pasta is definitely a lot more healthier for you, if you can fancy the taste. For example 1 cup of whole grain pasta contains 8 grams of protein, 39 grams of carbs, 7 grams of fiber and about 180 calories.

For the above comparison, I used Barilla Pasta.

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Ingredients Needed to make Pasta with Broccoli

Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Ziti or Rigatoni Pasta
Grated Parmesan Cheese
Pasta Cooking Water
Fresh Broccoli
Cherry Tomatoes (optional)
Butter
Garlic
Salt and Pepper
Fresh Basil

See recipe card for quantities.

Instructions on How to Make Pasta & Broccoli

Adding cherry tomatoes is 100% optional. If you decide to include them, prepare them as follows.

Lightly season cherry tomatoes with salt and pepper and a splash of olive oil. Bake in oven or toaster over for 25 minutes at 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Set aside.

Wash and cut the stems off the broccoli. Cut broccoli and boil until tender and wilted.

In a large skillet, sauté garlic in olive oil and butter. Add broccoli to skillet and cook covered. Boil pasta until it is al dente.

rigatoni pasta in a skillet with cherry tomatoes and broccoli

Scoop pasta using a spider strainer and drop into into skillet with broccoli and continue cooking. Add a couple of scoops of pasta water to the skillet so that the contents don't dry up.

Cook covered until it is tender enough to eat. Add grated parmesan cheese and roasted tomatoes. Toss and serve with fresh cut basil.

Hint: A spider strainer comes in handy to scoop up the pasta from the pot and transfer it into the skillet.

Substitutions and Variations

Here are some great ideas on how to make this broccoli pasta fit certain diets or variations to make it different:

Gluten Free - make it gluten free by using gluten free pasta
Cream - add heavy cream to make it a creamy pasta with broccoli
Heat - bring the heat by adding hot pepper oil or red pepper flakes
Vegan - make it vegan by using vegan cheese or using nutritional yeast
Protein - add a protein like chicken or use high protein pasta

If you know how to make this recipe unique or suit your diet - go for it! Let me know what you did and how it turned out by leaving me a comment. I'd love to hear from you.

Equipment

For this recipe you will need some sort of strainer for your pasta. I prefer a spider strainer. You'll also need a stock-pot and a skillet.

Storage

This pasta dish stores quite nicely, warmed up the next day. Remember to use an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for not more than 2 to 3 days.

To warm up, place in a skillet with a little bit of olive oil or warm up in the microwave.

These ingredients don't stand up well to freezing and would not recommend freezing pasta.

Food Safety

Note that the storage guidelines provided on this page and site are estimates from personal experiences. We are all adults and as an adult you are responsible to ensure that the food you eat is safe to eat. Since, I'm not a food safety expert, you are responsible to review your local guidelines on food storage prior to storing any food left-overs.

Remember to:

Not use the same utensils on cooked food, that previously touched raw meat
Wash hands after touching raw meat
Don't leave food sitting out at room temperature for extended periods
Never leave cooking food unattended
Use oils with high smoking point to avoid harmful compounds
Always have good ventilation when using a gas stove

For Canadian Guidelines check the Government of Canada Food Safety Guidelines or see more guidelines at USDA.gov.

Top tip

Reserve some pasta cooking water to combine the final ingredients with the pasta. Use the pasta water to prevent the broccoli sauce from thickening and drying out.

Side Dishes

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Recipe Details