This recipe, from this month’s Food & Wine, immediately caught my attention for its attribution: Greg Vernick of Philadelphia’s Vernick, a restaurant I love. If you’ve eaten at Vernick, you’ve likely had the pea toasts: thick slices of toasty sourdough smeared with a minty green purée topped with bacon. As you can imagine, the combination is heavenly. The striking hue of the “tomato butter” in the F&W photo, similarly brilliant to that of the pea purée, immediately took me back to eating those toasts, and the flavor, when I finally made the dish, did too. Friends, where to begin? The combination of ingredients here is so unexpected for me — I never think to pair broccoli and tomatoes so conspicuously — but they’re a great match. The addition of olives, which I almost omitted, is another surprising element, a simple flourish but one with a big impact: the meaty bursts of umami permeate the entire dish. I find the whole combination to be so, so delicious. There are three components to this recipe: the sauce, the broccoli, and the olive bread crumbs. Let’s explore each one:
Roasted Tomato “Butter”
Forgive the hyperbole here, but this sauce, referred to as tomato “butter” in the recipe, blew me away. And though at this point, I shouldn’t be surprised when a simple sauce tastes so good, I was. To make it, you simply roast a couple cups of cherry tomatoes and a chopped red onion with olive oil, salt, and pepper. After 30 minutes or so, when the tomatoes have collapsed and are starting to brown lightly, you purée them with water and a couple tablespoons of butter. That’s it! Not once have I had to adjust the flavor with more salt or pepper. It tastes fresh and bright, and I have no doubt I will be making this sauce in the future to toss with pasta or to spread over pizza dough. Note: I have used both my Vitamix and my Cuisinart to purée this sauce. Both work, but if you have a Vitamix, use it — it makes for an especially smooth purée.
Roasted Broccoli
Like cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts and other members of the cruciferous vegetable family, broccoli loves a good char. The trick here is to roast the broccoli cut side down until it is nicely brown — don’t turn the broccoli until you see good caramelization. For me, this takes roughly 30 minutes, but this may take more or less time for you depending on your oven (… mine has been running cool).
Olive Bread Crumbs
The original recipe calls for simply toasting bread crumbs in olive oil, sprinkling them over the finished dish, and serving an olive tapenade on the side. The first time I made this, I did just that — coincidentally I had a small jar of olive tapenade on hand, which I threw on the table with low expectations. Its inclusion felt a little “extra” to me: nice to have but maybe superfluous? I was wrong! I found myself wanting a little olive tapenade in each bite, and before we knew it, Ben and I had made a serious dent in the jar. Because many of you may not have tapenade on hand, and because some of you may not want to track it down, the next time I made this, I omitted it. Instead, after toasting the bread crumbs in olive oil, I simply tossed in some minced Kalamata olives. Warning for olive lovers: these bread crumbs are addictive. I find myself eating them with a spoon while I wait for the broccoli to finish roasting. Once I had to make a second batch, because I had polished off so much of the first. A few thoughts: I hope you all love this one as much as I. Here’s the play-by-play: Gather your ingredients. Trim the ends off the broccoli stalks and peel the lower stems: Halve the heads; then place on a sheet pan and toss with olive oil and salt. I love these quarter sheet pans: Toss cherry tomatoes and a roughly chopped onion with olive oil and salt in a separate pan. Transfer both pans to a 475ºF oven, and roast for 25 to 30 minutes. Transfer the onions and their juices along with 1/4 cup water and 2 tablespoons butter to a blender or food processor. Purée until smooth. Meanwhile, chop up 1/3 cup Kalamata olives. Toast 3/4 cup fresh bread crumbs in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil until evenly golden. Add the olives. Stir briefly; then remove from the heat. Smear some tomato sauce over a platter. Top with the roasted steaks. Spoon the olive bread crumbs over top. Serve immediately, passing extra sauce and olive bread crumbs on the side. 5 from 25 reviews For the fresh bread crumbs: simply place a hunk of day- or days-old bread into the food processor. Blend until finely chopped. Transfer to a storage vessel. Freeze the crumbs for up to 3 months or transfer to the fridge for 2 to 3 days. The original recipe called for olive tapenade. I simplified this a bit by adding chopped olives to the bread crumbs themselves. A few thoughts:
