Lemon Penne with Oven Roasted Broccoli is a pasta recipe that is super simple to make. It is bursting with fresh lemon flavor and lightly caramelized oven roasted broccoli. It is sure to become one of your favorite go-to dinners.

A white bowl full of penne pasta, broccoli, lemon, and pine nuts

This recipe is a highly requested dinner at my house. My husband and I have been eating it for years. It started as a recipe from Ina Garten called Bow Ties & Broccoli. However, thru the years, I have morphed the recipe by removing this.. adding that… changing this… and it has now turned into my Lemon Penne with Oven Roasted Broccoli.

It is a dinner recipe that I love because it is so simple to make. All the steps can be done simultaneously, cutting down on your time in the kitchen. While the pasta boils and the broccoli roasts in the oven, you can be making the lemon butter sauce! Once you have the recipe down you can truly have this completed and on the table in 20 minutes.

Oven Roasted Broccoli & Pine Nuts

I love broccoli! There are three ways that I like to eat it:

Raw, like in my Broccoli Bacon Salad recipe
Cooked, really boiled, until it almost melts in your mouth, with lots of butter, of course!
Oven roasted to a perfect al dente with lightly caramelized edges.

For this recipe I prefer to oven roast my broccoli at 400 degrees for about 12 minutes. This leaves the broccoli nice and al dente so it still has a little bite. I think that texture holds up nicely next to the pasta.

Oven Roasted Broccoli and pine nuts on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper

Now if you like your roasted broccoli just a little more caramelized then you can either bump up the temp. to 425 and stick with the 12 minutes, or keep it at 400 and roast it a little longer, between 15-18 minutes. Just keep an eye on it to make sure your broccoli doesn’t burn!

However long you choose to cook your broccoli, just make sure to toss the pine nuts on the baking sheet for the last minute or two to give them a nice toasting. It really brings out the buttery almost bacon-y flavor of the pine nuts! YUM

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Lemon Garlic Butter Sauce

How good does that sound, Lemon Garlic Butter Sauce! My mouth waters just from typing it.

This sauce is where the flavor is at in this recipe. It is a buttery sauce with a burst of fresh lemon and a kick of garlic. Those flavors compliment the roasted broccoli perfectly!

Saute pan full of lemon butter garlic sauce

It is a super simple sauce to make. You only need 4 ingredients:

Butter
Olive Oil (I like to use Extra Virgin Olive Oil for its flavor)
Lemon
Garlic

In a sauce pan you melt the butter and olive oil together. Add the lemon zest and garlic and let it lightly simmer for a few minutes. Off the heat you add the fresh lemon juice and a little salt. That is it.

Serving bowl full of pasta and broccoli, serving utensils to the side

Variations on Lemon Penne with Oven Roasted Broccoli

I have perfected this recipe thru the years to suit my families taste buds. You may want to try some different variations depending on your families palate. Here are some ideas to get you started:

I know my kids can be picky about the type of pasta I use (which is crazy because they all taste the same for God’s sake!). Try using spirals, macaroni, or bow ties.
Add some fresh grated Parmesan cheese over the top for an extra layer of flavor.
If you want to add some more veggies you could try throwing some cherry tomatoes, and zucchini on the sheet pan with the broccoli for the last 5 minutes of cooking time. This would make a nice pasta primavera!
In the spring when asparagus is in season and inexpensive try subbing it for the broccoli.
Substitute chopped walnuts for the pine nuts. Just make sure to still roast them in the oven with the broccoli. This will bring out their natural buttery flavor.
If you have a spiralizer, try this recipe using zoodles (zucchini noodles) instead of pasta.