Roasted Broccolini with Garlic-Shallot Confit and Whipped Ricotta

Three recipes in one. Combined for a perfect vegetable dish.

Sep 07, 2023

Hey, everyone!

Before we get into this week’s post— quick reminder that enrollment is now live for the second cohort of 80/20 Cooking!

Here’s a testimonial from Andrea, who was in the first cohort.

I never understood the “why” of the recipe steps, and just followed the recipes blindly, which often resulted in tasteless food and a stressful time in the kitchen. Myles’ class taught me that it was okay to loosen up in the kitchen which resulted in a more relaxed, fun time in the kitchen. I also learned the “why” of certain cooking steps, which really helped me to experiment on my own. Last but not least, Myles is a great teacher - he was able to teach absolute beginners (like me) as well as more experienced individuals in his class - and we never felt like we were asking dumb questions! Highly recommended.

Spots are filling up, and it’s looking like we’ll have a full cohort for October. If you’re interested in learning more, check out the website, my last post, or shoot me a message for more info!

Now, onto this week’s recipe (or collection of recipes). This is really a three-in-one post. Each of these components is fantastic on its own:

Roasted broccolini is one of my favorite vegetables and is an easy weeknight staple.
Garlic-shallot confit is a super-condiment flavor bomb. Add it to roasted vegetables, sandwiches, mashed potatoes, pasta, and much more.
Whipped ricotta is great as a base for roasted vegetables, but it's also amazing on toasted sourdough or as a dip.

Feel free to make any of these individually, or combine them like I did. This dish works with almost any roasted vegetable as the base, so change it up based on what’s in-season and available locally.

Garlic Shallot Confit

Garlic confit is a classic preparation where whole cloves of garlic are slow-cooked in olive oil until they're soft, jammy, and buttery. I like to add whole shallots, chile flakes, and a bit of lemon for additional flavor.

Ingredients

2-3 heads of garlic, cloves peeled
2 shallots, peeled, ends cut off, and sliced lengthwise
1-2 cups olive oil
1 tbsp chile flakes
juice + zest of 1 lemon

Pre-heat the oven to 225. Peel the cloves of garlic and add them to a saucepan.

Add in the peeled and sliced shallots and the chile flakes. Add in enough olive oil to cover everything. Cover the pan and put it in the oven for an hour.

After one hour, pull the pan from the oven. Add in the juice and zest of one lemon. Stir to combine. Cover again and put it back in the oven for 10 more minutes.

After 10 minutes, pull the pan from the oven and allow the mixture to cool completely. Once it's cool, add everything to a large mason jar and set aside or store in the fridge.

Whipped Ricotta

Whipped ricotta is simply fresh ricotta that's whipped in a food processor (or by hand) until it's light, fluffy, and airy. You can do the same thing with fresh feta, and you can flavor it with just about anything.

Ingredients

1 cup fresh ricotta
pinch of salt
big squeeze lemon juice
1 tbsp olive oil

Add the ricotta to a food processor, along the salt, olive oil and a big squeeze of lemon juice.

Blitz everything until it's smooth and airy. Yes, it's that easy.

Put it into an airtight container and set aside in the fridge until you're ready to use it.

Roasted Broccolini

Ingredients

1-2 bunches of broccolini
salt
olive oil
lemon juice

Pre-heat the oven to 375.

Spread the broccolini out on a roasting sheet. Season with a small amount of olive oil and salt on both sides.

Roast for 10-20 minutes until it's cooked through and slightly charred.

Once the broccolini is roasted, I like to chop it up in to smaller pieces.

Add everything to a big bowl, and scoop in a few tbsp of the garlic-shallot confit. Try to get the garlic and shallots themselves, rather than just the oil. Otherwise the mixture will be too oily.

Mix everything together, taste it, and adjust for salt as needed.