Recipe: Pasta Con Broccoli

I absolutely love pasta and this particular recipe is so easy and so tasty. My boys devour this pasta dish and Brennan usually asks for seconds. I have attempted to make a few tweaks here and there in order to add to the nutritional content. The following recipe is based on four servings. I serve this dish with salad, garlic bread and fruit so we usually have a very small amount of leftovers (about enough for one leftover lunch). Enjoy!

Ingredients:
8 ounces of large whole wheat pasta shells (original recipe calls for regular white flour noodles)
2 cups of fat free half & half (original recipe calls for full fat half & half)
4 tablespoons of butter
1 teaspoon of minced garlic
1 small can of all natural tomato sauce (original recipe calls for 4 tablespoons of sauce)
1 cup of broccoli
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup of grated Parmesan cheese

*Original recipe calls for 2/3 cup of sliced mushroom, but we do not care for mushrooms so I do not add them.

Directions:
1. In a large cooking pot, bring water to a boil. Add pasta and cook until about half-way done. Drain the pasta and return to the pot.

2. Add cream, butter, garlic, tomato sauce, broccoli, salt & pepper. Bring to a hard boil.

3. When noodles are fully cooked and sauce has thickened, add in the mushrooms. Stir to combine.

4. Remove the pasta from the heat, add the Parmesan cheese and toss.

5. Enjoy!

I have made this with fresh broccoli as well as a bag of steamed broccoli. The men in the house prefer the bagged broccoli because they like softer, well done veggies. I prefer the fresh broccoli, but as long as they are chowing down on that green stuff I'll eat whatever! I buy florets rather than chopped broccoli, but that is just my preference. I also prefer the real block of parm cheese as compared to the dried variety that comes in the green shaker can. I usually buy a small triangle of Parmesan cheese, shred it, use some in this recipe and save the rest for either lasagna or whole wheat pizza pockets.