Ground pork and broccoli pasta
Browned, herby ground pork, tender broccoli and garlic tossed with pasta shells and parmesan, a cheap dinner that eats like a restaurant plate.
- 30 min total
- 25 min hands-on
- Anyone can make this
- Serves 4
- About $2.37 a serving
- 760 calories
- Good the next day
Dolly says: I’d make this on a weeknight. It’s on the table in 30 minutes.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 12 oz medium pasta shells
- 4 cups broccoli, small florets
- 1 lb ground pork
- 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- ½ cup grated parmesan
- 1 lemon, zested and juiced
From your pantry
- 2 tsp salt, divided
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1½ tsp Italian seasoning
- ½ tsp black pepper
- ¼ tsp red pepper flakes (optional)
Each serving has about 760 calories, 36 g protein, 73 g carbs and 36 g fat, and costs about $2.37 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No broccoli? Frozen broccoli works.
- No grated parmesan? Parmesan wedge works.
- No lemons? Limes work.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
Bring a large pot of water and add 1½ tsp of the salt.
Bring to a boil. It means heating a liquid on high until it’s fully boiling before you move on. A lid on the pot gets it there faster, which makes it a good moment to chop something.
How you’ll know: Big bubbles break all over the surface, and they keep coming when you lift the lid.
High heat
Heat the oil in a large over medium-high. Add the pork, Italian seasoning, pepper and the rest of the salt, and cook 6 to 8 minutes, breaking it up, until with no pink left.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Brown. Browning means cooking until the outside turns brown, which is where a lot of savory flavor comes from. Give food room and time without stirring, or it steams and stays gray.
How you’ll know: The food looks brown rather than gray, and the kitchen smells toasty and savory.
Medium-high heatTimer: 7 min
Dolly’s tip: Leave it alone for a minute between stirs so it browns instead of steaming.Food safety: Ground beef, pork and lamb are done at 160°F. When it’s cooked through there’s no pink left anywhere in the pan.
Turn the heat to medium and stir in the garlic and pepper flakes for 1 minute, .
Fragrant. Fragrant means cooking until you can clearly smell it, usually garlic or spices, often in about 30 seconds. That’s the moment the flavor is ready, just before it can burn.
How you’ll know: You can smell it from a step back, and garlic is pale gold, not brown.
Medium heatTimer: 1 min
Cook the pasta as the package says, adding the broccoli for the last 3 minutes.
High heatTimer: 10 min
Scoop out 1 cup of the , then the pasta and broccoli.
Reserve pasta water. It means scooping out a cup of the starchy cooking water before you drain the pasta. A splash helps the sauce cling and turn silky, and it’s the step everyone forgets.
How you’ll know: A mug of cloudy water is sitting by the stove before the pasta goes into the colander.
Drain. Draining means pouring off liquid, like tipping pasta into a colander or spooning extra fat out of the pan. Pour hot grease into a can or jar, not the sink, where it hardens and clogs the pipes.
How you’ll know: Only a few drips are left, and the food isn’t sitting in a puddle.
Add the pasta and broccoli to the skillet with the parmesan, lemon zest and juice and ½ cup of the pasta water, and 1 minute, until glossy.
Toss. Tossing means gently lifting and turning food so everything gets coated, like pasta in sauce or vegetables in oil. It coats every piece evenly without mashing anything.
How you’ll know: Every piece looks glossy or evenly coated, with no dry spots hiding underneath.
Medium heat
Dolly’s tip: Add more pasta water a splash at a time if it looks dry. It turns the parmesan into a light sauce.Serve with more parmesan on top.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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30-minute dinners ›High-protein dinners ›What to make with broccoli and parmesan ›