Vegetarian in 30 minutes -- Farfalle with broccoli and sun dried tomatoes

After a year of swinging between being a pescetarian and a lacto-ovo vegetarian, I am trying to go back to the latter once again.  It's actually easy since I can whip up a quick vegetarian meal in just 30 minutes (do I sound like I'm auditioning to take over Rachel Ray?).

This Sunday dinner, I had a craving for pasta -- thankfully there was broccoli in the fridge and a box on farfalle in the pantry.  Next to penne, farfalle or bow tie pasta is my favourite kind.

For this dish, I checked what else was available in the vegetable bin and came up with pine nuts, sun dried tomatoes and left over grated parmigiano reggiano.  I chopped up lots of garlic and found a small tub of an award winning herb salt that a friend had brought back from her travels.

Here's how to make this very simple pasta dish.

Cook the broccoli with the farfalle, a few minutes before you remove the pasta from the stove.

Drain the pasta and the broccoli well and reserve a cup of the pasta liquid for later.

To keep the broccoli fresh and crisp and green, plunge pasta and broccoli together in a bowl with water and plenty of ice.

As you're cooling the pasta down, sauté garlic in olive oil and butter then add the pine nuts.

When garlic is slightly browned, add the sun dried tomatoes.  Then sprinkle with the herb salt.

After draining the pasta and broccoli from its ice cold bath,  mix in the pan and stir till pasta and vegetables are evenly coated.  Add a bit of the reserved pasta liquid to keep the farfalle from sticking. Use half of the grated cheese and keep the rest for table use.

It's a delicious, light and easy vegetarian meal.  All in just under 30 minutes!