The first recipe to go into the 10$ dinner category is:

Aglia Olio with Broccoli

1 large head of broccoli
1 lb. spaghetti
1/3 c. olive oil
1/2 stick butter
4 cloves crushed garlic
1/3 c. finely grated Parmesan reggiano cheese
1 tsp. red pepper flakes
salt to taste
1/4 c. chopped basil and/or Italian parsley

Blanch broccoli in salted boiling water for 5 minutes. Put it in cold water (not ice water).

Chop stems small, but not the tops. The stems will fall apart themselves.

Put skillet on medium low, add olive oil and butter until butter melts, then add garlic.

Do not BROWN the garlic, just explode the garlic into the oil (15-20 seconds), and then toss the broccoli into the oil mixture.

Simmer on low while the pasta cooks, add 3/4 c. of the pasta water if needed. Add hot pepper flakes and salt.

10-15 minutes while the pasta boils.

Drain pasta, do not rinse it. Add mixture to the pasta and toss, with parsley and cheese.

Top with additional cheese.

*This recipe originated from Chef John over at Food Wishes.com.

Slobo modified it to use Broccoli (because that’s what we had). It originally called for 6 cloves of garlic - I prefer about 4. Slobo thinks that it would be really good with our roasted garlic the next time, so we’ll try that and let you know. Roasted garlic is really good on just about everything!

This dinner was served with some additional frozen perogies from a weekend perogie making session… That recipe will be the next entry. Perogies are wonderful either as the main course or in this case, side dishes.

Cost to make:

broccoli - abt. 1$
Birilla spaghetti - 88 cents
1/3 c. olive oil - 2$
1/2 stick butter - 38 cents
garlic - 30 cents
Parmesan / reggiano cheese - 1.50
red pepper flakes, salt - negligible
Parsley - free from the garden.

Total: 6.06 to amply feed family of five.

Plus cost of about 20 perogies shared among 5.

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