Lemon Penne with Oven Roasted Broccoli

This Lemon Penne with Oven Roasted Broccoli is such a bright and light pasta recipe! When you want pasta, but you don’t want something heavy like a Ragu, this Lemon Penne is going to become your go-to. It is bursting with fresh lemon flavor and lightly caramelized oven roasted broccoli. Perfect pasta dinner for summer!

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 this Lemon Penne with Oven Roasted Broccoli.

Oven Roasted Broccoli & Pine Nuts

If you love broccoli you will love this recipe… on repeat!

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.

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

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!

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

• Butter
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 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.

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.

Making it a Dinner

To be totally honest, when we have this for dinner during the week I usually do not make an additional side dish.

To bulk up the dinner you can add a little Buttermilk Grilled Chicken or Marinated Grilled Chicken, and some garlic bread. Or if you are feeding kids, make these baked chicken meatballs for kids or toss some chicken nuggets in the oven with the broccoli!

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