The broken spaghetti soup with broccoli and potatoes is a simple, humble dish — just a few ingredients for a warm, flavorful first course.
My mother always made this soup; as a child I didn’t like it much, but as I grew up I came to appreciate it. She put so much love and passion into her cooking and could present very tasty dishes with few ingredients.
Today I present my version; I followed exactly how she used to make it. It’s a good dish, but her soup was always better!
That said, this soup should be served slightly brothy and is best enjoyed after resting, so all the flavors develop. Excellent hot on cold days, but also good when it has cooled a bit on spring days.
I used vegetables from my father’s garden — the leaves and flowers of our southern broccoli, all organic and locally grown!
If you, like me, love broccoli, read the other tasty recipes here!
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Inexpensive
- Rest time: 5 Minutes
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 2-3
- Cooking methods: Boiling
- Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients for broken spaghetti soup with broccoli and potatoes
- 3 1/3 cups Broccoli (Calabrian)
- 2 Potatoes (small)
- Half Onion
- 3.5 oz Spaghetti (broken)
- to taste Olive oil
- to taste Salt
- to taste Parmigiano Reggiano PDO (grated)
Tools
- Pot
Preparation for broken spaghetti soup with broccoli and potatoes
To prepare this soup, start by cleaning the broccoli: cut off the florets and the tender leaves, then rinse well under running water.
Peel and wash the potatoes and the onion as well.In a pot or saucepan, sauté the chopped onion with a little olive oil, add the potatoes cut into small cubes, and finally add the broccoli leaves and florets. Stir and cook over medium heat for about two minutes.
Cover everything with plenty of water — remember you will need enough to cook the pasta — add salt and let it cook for about 10 minutes.
Meanwhile break the spaghetti into pieces; you can use regular or thin spaghetti, or even short pasta.After the 10 minutes of cooking, add the pasta to the brothy vegetables, adjust salt, and cook for the time indicated on the pasta package — I used spaghetti with an 8-minute cooking time.
If you need more water while cooking, add it hot; the final dish should be a bit brothy, not dry.
After the pasta is cooked, turn off the heat, let it cool slightly, then add a good handful of grated Parmigiano. Let everything rest for a bit, then serve with a drizzle of olive oil.
Anna recommends…
You can use other types of broccoli and different short pasta or small pasta shapes for this recipe.
