This one’s a bit of a fave at the moment. A southern Italian pasta dish – you cook the broccoli until soft in the same water as the pasta. The key to this tasty dish is that, once the pasta and broccoli are drained, you throw the pasta and broccoli in the pan with the oil, garlic and pancetta combination before serving.

300g penne
1 head of broccoli, crumbled up into small florets
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
80g pancetta
2 cloves garlic (thinly sliced – ala Goodfellas)
1/2 teaspoon chilli flakes
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
Grated parmesan to serve

Cook penne in plenty of boiling salted water.

When half-cooked, add the broccoli. Heat a frying pan over a medium heat, add some of the oil and cook pancetta until crispy. Add the garlic and chilli, stir until lightly golden and remove from heat. Just make sure you don’t burn that garlic – there’s nothing worse.

Drain pasta and broccoli – the broccoli should be soft and broken up – and add to the pan of garlic and pancetta, cook for a few minutes, tossing and adding a touch more pepper, salt and oil. Serve with parsley, if using, and parmesan.

The end result – tonight’s dinner (sans parsley and parmesan – dammit!)

Serves 4. Recipe credits – Brigitte Hafner.