Fresh Tagliatelle with Sprouting Broccoli and Oozy Cheese Sauce

By nnlester

Recipe Excerpted from JAMIE AT HOME by Jamie Oliver. Copyright (c) 2008. Published in the U.S. by Hyperion. All rights reserved. Available wherever books are sold. www.jamieoliver.com

Ingredients

• 1 cup creme fraiche
• 5 ounces sliced fontina or other nice melting cheese
• 5 ounces freshly grated Parmesan
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 pound purple sprouting broccoli
• 2 large free-range or organic egg yolks
• 1 small bunch fresh marjoram, oregano or thyme tips, leaves picked
• Freshly grated Parmesan, for serving
• Extra-virgin olive oil

Details

Servings 4
Adapted from foodnetwork.com

Preparation

Step 1

Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. In a bowl large enough to rest on top of the pan, put your creme fraiche, fontina or other melting cheese and your Parmesan with a pinch of salt and pepper. Place the bowl over the pan for the cheeses to slowly melt. It won't take long. Meanwhile, trim any dry ends off the broccoli, then finely slice the stalks diagonally and leave the florets whole (cutting any larger ones in half).

At this point the cheese sauce should be lovely and oozy, so remove the bowl from above the pan and drop the pasta and broccoli into the boiling water. Boil hard for 2 to 3 minutes, until the pasta is just cooked through. Whip up the 2 egg yolks and the marjoram, or other chosen herb leaves, into the sauce. Drain the pasta and broccoli, reserving a little of the cooking water, and quickly toss them with the sauce - the heat from the pasta will be enough to cook the eggs through. If the sauce is a little thick, add a few splashes of cooking water to make it silky and loose. Taste and season, if necessary. Serve as quickly as you can, with some extra Parmesan sprinkled over the top and a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil. Grand!