RECIPE - Roasted Broccoli with Garlic and Parmesan

Awhile back, I wrote that every vegetable I've been eating lately was roasted. I do it because it smells and tastes better than steaming and there's less cleanup than anything else. I don't feel awesome about creating a sheet of aluminum foil waste, but I do recycle nearly everything else.

No one I grew up with ever ate roasted broccoli. As a result, everyone I recommend it to reacts like I'm telling them to make their own stock (difficult, no matter what Michael Ruhlman tells you) or slaughter their own chickens (icky, no matter how noble).

What they're missing is that roasting broccoli brings out a sweeter, nuttier taste, and that throwing some garlic and parmesan into the mix actually makes me not hate a vegetarian meal. Here's how I does it....

What You'll Need:

• 3 heads of broccoli, or however many of that sort of thing (florets, etc.) you need
• 1 or 2 cloves garlic, depending on taste
• olive oil, just enough to barely coat broccoli
• black pepper, to taste
• kosher salt, to taste
• grated Parmesan cheese (please not the kind that comes from a can)

What You'll Do:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees
• Cut broccoli into florets, small enough to be manageable bites
• Mince garlic
• Toss florets and garlic with olive oil, black pepper, kosher salt
• Place florets on baking sheet (I spray mine with Pam because it's easy and tasteless), place in oven.

• Roast for 10-15 minutes, or long enough so that the broccoli has just started to crisp and brown.

***I like my broccoli just past al dente. It's a product of growing up in a household where every vegetable was cooked to mush***

• 7. Once your broccoli is al dente, turn oven to broil and sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese. You'll only need to broil for a minute, possibly 90 seconds, before it's barely melting and starts to smell verrrrry good.

This is what happens. It's not burnt, it's browned. It's not bitter, it's sweet and nutty and (possibly, it's a vegetable) healthy and tasty.