Broccoli Sauce

This recipe is adapted from the inimitable Smitten Kitchen. The version below has been through multiple iterations, but the thing I always disliked having to cook the broccoli by steaming or par-boiling it first, because there is a perceptible loss of flavor. 

By chopping up the broccoli first, and using a wider, casserole pan, there is enough liquid to cook the broccoli straight in the pan. I used my Magimix cubing accessory, as I needed it to blend the resulting sauce anyway. 

Ingredients


100g butter
1 white onion -- chopped
2 garlic cloves -- peeled and smashed
500g broccoli -- about 2 small heads*
250g cream
Salt and black pepper to taste
1 bay leaf

Prepare broccoli by washing and removing the stem. Cube the head as best as you can, to about 5mm.

Use a wide pan. Melt butter. Saute onion and garlic until translucent. Add broccoli and salt, and when the pan is hot again, pour in the cream.

If necessary, add just enough water to almost cover the vegetables. If you need to use more than 150ml, transfer to a wider pan.

Add more salt, black pepper, chilli flakes and bay leaf.

Simmer until the broccoli is almost fully cooked.

Remove from heat. Blend until smooth.

Serve over pasta with lots and lots of parmesan, and chilli flakes if desired.

Notes: 

This makes a lot of sauce. I would say enough for about 600-800g of dry, long pasta, like linguine.

It freezes very well, and I make it in large quantities for my lunches at home.

When serving over pasta, I cook the pasta, reserving some pasta water. Then I reheat the sauce, stir in the pasta water, and toss the noodles in.

To make broccoli soup: Make a very loose roux-based cream soup, and take it off heat. Warm up the broccoli sauce, then stir in the soup. Start with a little soup first, but once the sauce is loosened up, just pour in the soup. A ratio of about 100g sauce to 200g milk is ideal.

Pasta Carbonara with Sous Vide Egg

Ingredients: 
50g crispy bacon -- or 75-80g uncooked
8g bacon fat
3 egg -- according to the box, an average of 58g (use Large)
100g grated parmesan  -- plus more to taste
170g dried egg noodles -- fettucine
Fresh black pepper
Salt

If the bacon is uncooked, crisp it up in the oven. You want it shatteringly crisp so it crumbles better.

Crumble the bacon in a bowl, and set aside. Pour the bacon fat into a medium mixing bowl, and once cool, grate the parmesan into the same bowl. Add a couple grinds of black pepper.

(Save the extra fat. People who don't should burn in hell probably.)

Sous vide the eggs at 60C for 40 minutes. 

30 minutes later, throw the pasta into a pot of salted boiling water, and cook as per package instructions. 

Drain the pasta and pour it into the mixing bowl. Crack the eggs into the bowl and mix well.

Serve with more parmesan and black pepper, as needed. 

Tasting Notes:

This recipe is for 2 hungry people. The leftovers can be crisped the next day, or thrown into an omelette.
If you like a looser sauce, I'd recommend saving a cup or so of the pasta water, and add it in if necessary.

Sous Vide Egg 
I settled on 60C for 40 minutes based on this Serious Eats article.
The eggs are just right at 60C for 40 minutes -- though, as always with sous vide, you probably have some margin of error on that.
For a looser sauce, you can probably try a little less time, or a lower temp.
In the past, using raw eggs, I was always careful to use the freshest eggs I can find (rather difficult to find here), but since the egg is cooked to temp before mixing, that is not really a concern here.