In Rome it’s still common to follow an informal, unscientific weekly recipe calendar that was established centuries ago based on religious tenets.
Romans call the food served after this calendar piatti canonici – Canonical dishes.The wonderfully rowdy trattoria il Bucatino, the one that inhabits the right hand corner of the first floor of our palazzo, follows this weekly calendar. Each day the right smells curl with the kitchen window of il Bucatino across the courtyard, up two floors and when it is open, so it often is, into our door.
Saturday may be the day for trippa alla romana (tripe with mint and pecorino romano); Sunday is Fettuccine alla romana followed by abbacchio (fettucine pasta with a hearty meat, chicken liver and tomato sauce accompanied by roast suckling lamb); Monday is the day for riso e indivia in brodo (rice and curly indivia in chicken broth); Tuesday is pasta e ceci (pasta with chickpeas) pasta e fagioli (pasta and beans) or fish; Wednesday, anything goes; Thursday is gnocchi di patate (potato gnocchi); Friday, it is Traditional to eat pasta e ceci (pasta with chickpeas again), baccal (salt cod) or pasta e broccoli (pasta with broccoli).
Here’s the super simple recipe of how my grandma accustomed to make pasta and broccoli
Recipe
Fry 4-5 garlic cloves in extra virgin olive oil, of course inside a fry pan. Chop some fresh parsley meanwhile. When the garlic is golden (not brown), take away the pan in the fire and while it’s still hot add a cup of breadcrumbs. Real bread crumbs grated out of your week-old left over bread , not the chicken’s food you get from the supermarket.
Mix everything quickly, the residual hot of the oil is enough to brown the breadcrumbs without having to burn them, but if you’re too slow they definitely will. Acquire some water to the boil and add pasta and broccoli simultaneously. Short pasta is better: rigatoni, penne, fusilli, stuff like that.
When the pasta is prepared just drain it, season it with essential olive oil and add some breadcrumbs and also the fresh parsley.
It’s simple but super awesome.