Sautéed Broccoli

When I was in school and living on my own for the first time, for some reason I was really concerned about scurvy. While all the other students lived happily on ramen and frozen pizza, I’d come home and steam broccoli as a snack between classes. Unfortunately, I overdid it on the steamed broccoli, and by senior year, I’d pretty much had it with broccoli in any form.

Now I’m in grad school and on a recent trip to the dining hall with my classmates, I was reminded of how fantastic raw broccoli can be with ranch dressing – though you don’t get much more processed than dining hall ranch dressing.

Since becoming reacquainted with my old green friend, I decided to try the simplest approach of sauteing with butter, salt and lots of freshly ground pepper. It’s so simple, I wasn’t sure if it would really be necessary to post, but it was so enjoyable and for some reason, I hadn’t thought of this method until about three weeks ago. So, I decided to go for it and share with everyone, because that’s the whole point here.

Allowing the broccoli to brown a bit in the butter adds a rich layer and a generous dusting of freshly ground pepper lends a nice robust bite.

Sautéed Broccoli (sometimes the name says it all) - serves 2

2 large heads of broccoli (about 1 lb), chopped
3 T butter
1/4 t sea salt
1/2 t freshly ground black pepper

Melt 2 tablespoons butter in frying pan over medium high heat. When the butter begins to foam, add the broccoli and lower heat to medium.

Cook, tossing occasionally to brown evenly, about 10 minutes.

Add the third tablespoon of butter, salt and pepper and cook an additional 5 – 10 minutes until the broccoli is tender-crisp and partly browned.

Serve hot.