I love pasta with broccoli. It's something my mom has made since we were young, but it's just not the same with store-bought pasta - only fresh, handmade pasta will do .... cavatelli to be exact.

It's a fine art - mix the flour, water, eggs, salt in just the right amounts so that the pasta is not too wet. Kneading in all the flour to get the right consistency is quite the workout and usually you can skip your arm workout at the gym for a couple of days. Then, of course, the secret is to leave the dough under a bowl for an hour or so; go back to it and it will be much more wet so you knead in more flour - back under the bowl and repeat .... at least 2 more times.

Cut it into pieces, roll it out, cut like linguine, chop the linguine into smaller pieces, carve with your fingers (great for holding sauce)so the finished item looks like a bunch of one-inch pieces with two divets in them.

Now, take steamed broccoli and fry it with garlic and some salt and pepper. Cook the pasta, leave some of the water and add the broccoli. It's that simple! Ok, so there's a tiny bit more than that involved, but basically that's it!!! And.... oh so good!

Just the smell of it brings back memories of being a little boy making fresh pasta in my nonna's basement in preparation for a big loud italian family function! Aaaaah, good food... good times!

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