Simple yet delicious 20-minute Garlic Pasta with Broccoli is a quick family-friendly dinner made with shell pasta, broccoli, garlic and oil. It's a recipe with a mild taste, easy ingredients and quick preparation that makes a tasty side dish or meatless dinner.
Garlic Pasta with Broccoli is a no-fail, quick and delicious go-to dinner or side dish. It takes only a few minutes to prepare and only 15 minutes to cook. The best part? It's a one pot meal!
While it satisfies as a simple side dish or vegetarian dinner, it can also be paired with some chicken nuggets or fish sticks for a heartier meal. This recipe is similar to our skillet fried tortellini and broccoli, which is equally as delicious.
The broccoli can be chopped very small for picky eaters, or instead of broccoli use your kids favorite vegetable. But if your little ones still refuse to eat those veggies, a simple butter and parmesan pasta is a great choice. Or maybe your kids love vegetables and would enjoy our Mexican-inspired vegetarian stuffed peppers.
Broccoli garlic pasta is also great for when you're low on groceries or don't have the time nor energy to delve into a complicated, time consuming dinner.
Ingredients
Garlic pasta with broccoli is made with 6 simple ingredients:
- Broccoli: we prefer fresh broccoli, but frozen broccoli works too.
- Garlic: crushed garlic cloves give great flavor and texture to the pasta. I recommend against using minced garlic.
- Pasta: shell pasta is great with olive oil and garlic sauces, but other short pasta like farfalle, penne, ziti and rigatoni are good also.
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Parmesan cheese: grated or freshly shredded both work.
- Salt and pepper
How To Make Garlic Pasta With Broccoli
STEP 1: Over high heat, bring a large pot of salted water to a rolling boil. Add the pasta. Cook for the time according to the package instructions and your preference for pasta tenderness.
STEP 2: When there are 7 minutes of cook time left, add the chopped broccoli to the pot of pasta. When broccoli and pasta are cooked, turn off the heat and drain, reserving about a cup of pasta water. Set the pasta and broccoli aside.
STEP 3: Add the extra virgin olive oil to the same pot and cook the crushed garlic over medium heat in the oil for 2 minutes, stirring often. Turn off the heat and add the pasta and broccoli back to the pot.
STEP 4: Season with salt and pepper. Serve sprinkled with parmesan cheese.
Recipe Tips
- Don't overcook the broccoli or it will turn mushy.
- For picky kids, cut the broccoli into tiny pieces. For kids that love broccoli, double up on how much you use!
- Instead of using broccoli, use peas, green beans, chopped asparagus, or spinach.
Recipe FAQs
Yes, you can make this recipe with frozen broccoli. You may need to boil it for a few minutes more than the recipe states, as it is written primarily for using fresh broccoli.
To crush garlic, I like using a mortar and pestle. Sprinkling some salt in with the garlic as you crush it will create some friction and keep the garlic in the mortar.
Pasta with broccoli and garlic can be kept for up to 5 days in the fridge in an airtight container.
Recipe
Garlic Pasta With Broccoli
Equipment
Ingredients
- 12 oz medium pasta shells, or other short pasta
- ½ head broccoli, fresh or frozen
- ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 4 large garlic cloves, crushed
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- parmesan cheese, for serving
Instructions
- Over high heat, bring a large pot of salted water to a rolling boil. Add the pasta. Cook for the time according to the package instructions and your preference for pasta tenderness.
- When there are 7 minutes of cook time left, add the chopped broccoli to the pot of pasta. When broccoli and pasta are cooked, turn off the heat and drain, reserving about a cup of pasta water. Set the pasta and broccoli aside.
- Add the extra virgin olive oil to the same pot and cook the crushed garlic over medium heat in the oil for 2 minutes, stirring often. Turn off the heat and add the pasta and broccoli back to the pot.
- Season with salt and pepper. Serve sprinkled with parmesan cheese.
Notes
Nutrition
Rachel Reed-Dalhover says
Hi. This looks delicious. One question though...what do you do with the reserved pasta water? Is it supposed to stay in the pot and you add the oil and garlic to it?
Maddy says
You should remove it before adding the oil and garlic, and only use the pasta water if you'd like the a more liquidy sauce.