The first of 4 exclusive recipes (that will be dropping weekly!), chef and food writer Nina Parker brings us an easy taste sensation
I find that anything with baked feta is a bit of a cheat because it creates intense flavour with minimal effort. The classic combination of mixing chilli, feta and lemon together is always a winner. This is proper comfort food!
Serves 4. Vegetarian
Ingredients:
10 tbsp olive oil
2 blocks of Greek feta cheese (400g)
1 red/white onion, sliced
6 garlic cloves, skins left on
1 level tsp dried chilli flakes
Zest of 1 lemon and the juice of 1/2
1 whole broccoli head,(260g) divided into equal bite-sized pieces
4 handfuls of baby spinach, quickly wilted down in a frying pan
320g pasta of your choice, I love rigatoni for this
Salt and pepper
Method:
Preheat the oven to 190C and grab a large baking dish.
Add 8 tablespoons of olive oil, feta, onion, garlic cloves and chilli flakes. Make sure everything is coated without breaking the feta.
Place into the oven for 20 mins.
Throw the broccoli into a bowl and add the last two spoons of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.
Remove the tray and scatter the broccoli around. Place back into the oven for another 20-25 minutes or until everything is cooked.
Squeeze the garlic out of their skins and put the cloves into a small bowl.
In the last 10 mins of cooking, start on the pasta. Set a large pan of water to boil and when bubbling, salt water generously! Then add the pasta and cook to the packet instructions.
Just before the pasta is ready, scoop out about 150ml of the cooking water and add this to the garlic cloves. Use a spoon to mash it all together. Pour this over the baking dish along with the drained pasta, wilted spinach, lemon zest and juice.
Toss everything together, breaking up the feta and season with more pepper. Taste to check the seasoning adding more chilli flakes if needed.
Serve straight away!
You can find more recipes on NinaFood.com
