Broccoli on Broccoli

I first separated the broccoli stalk from the florets. The florets got roasted in the usual combination of olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt, pepper and paprika. The stalk got diced and went into a pot of simmering milk. After a while, the stalk pieces softened and I stick-blended the whole thing into a creamy, broccoli flavored sauce. I don't remember details such as whether it contained sauteed onions and/or cheese, but those would both be appropriate.

The sauce went over spaghetti, and the roasted florets on top of that. Delicious.

Ragu for Two

Seems like a ragu is usually a meat based sauce but here I left out the meat and even the veggie meat. (I'm reserving it for chili night... Stay tuned.) In any case the basic idea is to make a soffritto and simmer for a long time. (Impressive bit of knowledge I just shared, I know. In all honesty I got the name from Wikipedia and don't even know how to pronounce it. I'm not giving away any secrets here....) A soffritto is a mixture of chopped onion, celery, carrots, seasoning... etc. I also added some chopped garlic and mushrooms. For seasoning I used salt, pepper, oregano and thyme. Throw it all in the pot with some oil and let it go for awhile, until the vegetables have cooked down a lot. At this point I added in a bit of red wine (what was left in the fridge), 1 to 1 1/2 cups of water with chicken broth/soup mix, and a can of crushed tomatoes. Let that cook down a bit to get rid of some of the liquid and your ragu is ready. You can either serve it at this point (with pasta of course) or zuzh first then serve. I prefer the vegetable chunks (it gives my dinner some personality) but some prefer the smooth consistency. Either way your ragu will smell amazing and taste even better!