Easy Broccoli Tetrazzini

Okay, not to embarrass my Italian roots… I know this isn’t quite tetrazzini. I would called it “Adlibbed Tetrazzini,” similar to my “Adlibbed Venison” from last week, but broccoli in the title seemed more appealing.

I also think many people like the word “easy,” particularly men in a bar setting.

Tetrazinni is technically a baked pasta dish–it varies, but often includes a type of meat (usually chicken), mushrooms, a cream/Parmesan based sauce, and some type of “topping”: usually breadcrumbs, cheese, etc. Clearly, this is an Italian-American dish. I know nuts are generally included in this dish, but for the sake of all those nut-allergy people, I left it out (also, I grew up on tetrazzini in a house where none of my siblings liked nuts, so my mother never made it with nuts. She also generally used Hamburger Helper… for shame).

So, since it was cold yesterday (Winter is coming…), I decided to try and make a tetrazinni using what we had.

I also pan-seared some white eggplant in olive oil to round out the Dago-ness of this meal (I don’t know what it means when I come from a Southern Italian family that I crave Italian whenever it’s cold).

Ingredients

• One eggplant (white or purple)
• 2 1/2 cups of DRY pasta (always measure/weigh pasta before cooking)
• 3 cloves of garlic, diced
• 1-2 cups of Parmesan cheese (depending on your preference, increase or decrease the amount)
• 1/2 cup breadcrumbs (I used Panko because I could eat that shit on anything)
• Olive/Pomace oil for cooking
• 2-3 cups broccoli (I used frozen that I boiled in the same pot as the pasta once it was removed)
• 1-to 1/2 cups milk (I used unsweetened flax milk)
• Salt/salt alternative (to taste)
• Pepper (to taste)
• Oregano (to taste)
• Basil (to taste)

Preparation

• Slice eggplant and put in a bowl with salt OR salt alternative. This will leech out some of the water for a crisper edged eggplant.
• Boil 2 1/2 cups of pasta (I used egg noodles because that’s all we had).
• Boil broccoli (you can always use the same pot to save time/room/energy/omgsomanyslashes) after pasta is done.
• Preheat oven to 450 (Fahrenheit, because I live in “WHAT’S CELSIUS OR KELVIN?” America).

Eggplants Instructions

• Put a little olive/pomace oil in pan on medium/high heat (6 or 7).
• Cook eggplant on pan, turning over occasionally.
• Eggplant should be slightly transparent and slightly soft.
• Take off, sprinkle with pepper and salt/salt alternative.

Tetrazzini Instructions

• Boil pasta and broccoli as mentioned in prep. If you need instructions on how to do this, I recommend you leave the internet OR look at the bag on pasta.
• Sorry, that was mean. You can stay on the internet. There’s this thing called YouTube.
• In a 9×12 baking dish, or really any oven-safe container, put cooked pasta and broccoli. (I did not put butter, oil, Pam, lube, or anything in the dish, and everything came out fine. I was also using a glass dish, so make of that what you will).
• Add milk, half to 2/3 of the total amount of cheese you’re deciding to add (I put in about a cup and a half, because I ******* love cheese), salt/salt alternative to taste, pepper to taste, oregano to taste, and basil to taste. I used dried oregano and basil because I didn’t feel like walking out to the garden. IT WAS COLD.
• In the same saucepan you used for the eggplant (I’m all about efficiency/laziness), put a little bit of oil on medium/high heat (7 or 8) and cook garlic until it’s crisp/golden brown.
• Put garlic in pasta.
• Mix everything together in dish.
• Sprinkle panko and remaining cheese over top of dish.
• Drizzle a little bit of olive/pomace oil over the top.
• Bake pasta for 45 minutes.

EAT.

Now, obviously mushrooms could easily be included in this dish. That was actually the original plan until I smelled my mushrooms and they seemed wonky.

Based on my exact measurements and ingredients (including the flax milk, which I recommend), this makes four big servings with the following nutritional information per serving: 384 Calories, 29g of Carbs, 22g of Fat, 24g of Protein, 2g of Fiber, and 742mg of Sodium.

Sodium and fat are primarily from the cheese, so this could be changed if you decide to alter your cheese to a dairy-free or lower-sodium option.

I consider this recipe Vegetarian because no meat, and the only dairy product is the Parmesan cheese which could be substituted, of course, with a vegan cheese.

If you want to do it up, hit-em up style (what?), you can use a fuller fat milk for creaminess. This dish was less creamy than usual, but the flavors were so on point I didn’t actually miss the creaminess.