The main dish that we made at the South Arm Community Kitchen is an easy pasta dish.

This is one of the easiest pasta dishes that is quick to make with only a few ingredients in a pot.

Ingredients

• 12 oz uncooked pasta (we used macaroni)
• 6 1/2 cups fresh broccoli florets, no stems
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• red pepper flakes, optional

This recipe is adapted from Skinnytaste.com

You can learn more about broccoli from Thrive Cuisine here.

For dessert, we made the Classic Carrot Cake with reduced sugar.

You can click on the link here for the recipe. We reduced the sugar to 1 cup and it is still moist and sweet. We reckoned that the sugar can be further reduced to 3/4 cup.

Instructions

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. When the water boils, add pasta and broccoli at the same time and cook according to pasta package instructions for al-dante. When the pasta is almost done cooking, reserve about 1 cup of the pasta water and set aside. Drain pasta and broccoli.

Return the pot to the stove and set heat to high.  Add olive oil. When hot, add garlic.

Cook until golden, reduce heat to low and add pasta back to the pot and mix well.

Add grated Parmesan and season with salt and pepper to taste. Mix well and breakup any large pieces of broccoli.

Add 1/2 cup of the reserved pasta water and mix well adding more if needed. Serve in pasta bowls with additional grated Parmesan on the side. If you like a little spice, add some crushed red pepper flakes.