Broccolini & Red Bell Pepper with Fresh Pasta & Brown Butter Sauce

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My favorite special occasion restaurant in Milwaukee is Swig.  I love it so much that we are having our rehearsal dinner there! 

They had this amazing caprese salad with warm gnocchi on a bed of lettuce and fresh mozzarella on big tomato slices.  I ordered it every single time we went.  Then one day it wasn’t on the menu and I wanted to cry.

But I’m glad it’s no longer on the menu because it led me to discover my new Swig favorite, Spinach Angel Hair Pasta.  Last night Bryce was in a broccolini mood and it reminded me of my favorite dish there that is cooked up with red bell pepper, shallots, garlic, and of course the broccolini in a brown butter sauce all tossed with spinach angel hair pasta.

We got to Whole Foods and guess what they didn’t have…broccolini! So we got 2 heads of broccoli and some RP’s fresh egg pasta (instead of spinach pasta) and headed home for me to attempt a copycat recipe.

RP's. They make gluten free pasta too!

I must say, it worked out quite well.  This dish is so fresh, delicious, and flavorful.  It will definitely become a new regular at home.

Broccolini Red Bell Pepper Pasta:

9 oz Fresh Angel Hair Pasta (dried is fine too)

2 Heads Broccoli, Sliced or 1 Bunch Broccolini

1 Red Bell Pepper, Sliced

2 Shallots, Sliced

5 Cloves Garlic, Sliced

5 Tb Butter

Salt & Pepper to taste

Prep your veggies and melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a large pan.  Add your broccoli, pepper, shallots & garlic to the pan and cook for 1 minute on medium-high heat.  Add about 1 ½ cups water to the veggies and cover with lid. Add salt & pepper and stir occasionally. Cook until the vegetables are tender. 

In the meantime, melt the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter in a separate pan on medium heat to create a brown butter sauce.  The butter should sizzle and foam up then turn brown.  Once it is brown, lower the heat and let it get a bit darker for a few minutes.  Turn the heat off before it burns and you are good to go.  Boil some water and cook your pasta.  Fresh angel hair only takes 2-3 minutes to cook so I waited until the veg was nearly done to make the pasta.

Mix it all together, make sure you have added salt & pepper the way you like, and say yum.

YUM.

Delicious Pasta and some steamed veggies on the side.