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Ottolenghi's Orecchiette One Pot Pasta with Broccoli and Herbs

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One pot pasta may seem a little unusual at first glance and not necessarily an original Italian invention - but it works very well and often results in a pleasantly creamy sauce.

This recipe is based on a Yotam Ottolenghi’s One Pot Pasta, which is based on an Apulian recipe. Because the broccoli is cooked in the sauce for a long time, it slowly dissolves and becomes very tasty. The fresh herbs, added towards the end, give it a wonderfully fresh note.

The only non-vegetarian ingredient in the dish is anchovies. I like the strong, salty note and the depth of flavour it gives, but of course you can leave them out or replace them with another strong, salty ingredient such as capers in brine.

Orecchiette, a small Italian pasta from Puglia that looks like a little ear, go very well with this dish.

One-pot pasta with broccoli and herbs
One-pot pasta with broccoli and herbs

Recipe #

Yotam Ottolenghi’s Orecchiette One Pot Pasta with Broccoli, Rocket and Herbs

25 minutes

2 portions

Ingredients #

  • 50 ml olive oil
  • 3 cloves of garlic
  • 2 anchovies
  • 1 head of broccoli (approx. 275 g)
  • 2 teaspoon lemon juice
  • 250 g vegetable stock
  • 50 ml white wine
  • 20 g butter
  • 150 g orecchiette
  • 15 g Parmesan cheese
  • 10 g fresh basil
  • 10 g fresh parsley
  • 10-15 g rocket
  • 1/2 teaspoon chilli
  • Salt and pepper

Directions #

  1. Peel and chop the garlic, drain and chop the anchovies. Wash the broccoli, peel and chop the stalk and cut the head into florets.
  2. Heat about 35 ml of olive oil in a large frying pan and slowly fry the garlic until golden. Add the anchovies, broccoli and lemon juice and cook for about three minutes. Season well with salt and pepper.
  3. Pour in the vegetable stock, wine and about 150ml water and cook for a further five minutes until the broccoli begins to soften.
  4. Add the orecchiette and about half of the parmesan and cover with the lid. Cover and cook for about 12-15 minutes, until the broccoli has dissolved in the sauce and the orecchiette are al dente.
  5. Meanwhile, wash and chop the basil, parsley and rocket. Stir into the sauce at the end of cooking.
  6. Serve in a deep plate and sprinkle with the remaining parmesan, a little olive oil and chilli.

Carbon Footprint #

In total, two portions of orecchiette with broccoli and herbs have an estimated carbon footprint of 889 g.

This ranks it number 8 out of 55 recipes published on the blog so far in terms of estimated carbon footprint.

This means that it belongs to the quarter of recipes that have the lowest climate impact (i.e. top 25%). 🥰

The General Tso Tofu (838 g CO2) and pasta with savoy cabbage-lemon cream sauce (943 g CO2), for example, have similar carbon footprints.

Among the individual ingredients, butter and parmesan cheese stand out: Together they account for just under 5% of the weight of the ingredients, but more than 30% of the emissions caused by the recipe. On the other hand, broccoli and vegetable stock account for almost 60% of the weight, but only about 18% of the estimated carbon footprint.

Learn more more about our methodology for estimating carbon footprints. The graph displays only ingredients that make up at least 1% of the total ingredient weight. Below the graph, you will find a detailed table with all ingredients.

ingredientcarbon footprint per kgcarbon footprint (in g) for 2 servings% of ingredients% of CO2 emissions
Olive oil3.21606%18%
Garlic0.541%0%
Anchovies2.0392%4%
Broccoli0.38331%9%
Lemon juice0.692%1%
Vegetable stock0.38028%9%
White wine1.0506%6%
Butter9.01802%20%
Orecchiette0.710517%12%
Parmesan cheese6.3952%11%
Basil1.1111%1%
Parsley1.1111%1%
Arugula0.341%0%
Chili powder1.120%0%
Salt0.710%0%
Pepper1.210%0%
Roasting / Cooking536%

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