Ina's Group - Salads, Soups or Sides?

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This month in the Ina Garten group we are making salads, soups or side dishes.  I chose a side dish because it is just a little warm here for a soup!  Ina has so many wonderful and flavorful dishes it is always a hard choice.  I decided on her Broccoli and Bowties.  We always love pasta and I am trying to incorporate more fiber into our dinners so the broccoli just made good sense for us.

I have gotten into a bad habit of just microwaving our side dishes at night and my microwave died a couple of weeks ago.  It was only three months old so we were able to take it back and order another one.  It was supposed to arrive yesterday but they had us down for today's delivery between one and five.  So here I sit and it is right now five o'clock and no delivery yet.  They did call and say they were running behind but they didn't call until five o'clock.  So frustrating!!!  Anyway, I guess you don't realize how much you use an appliance until you no longer have it.  I keep going to the pantry and getting popcorn out and realizing "no microwave."  Or. .  going to heat up my lunch - "no microwave."  I have discovered my toaster oven works pretty well to heat most foods so I am surviving!  Hopefully it will get here and get installed tonight.

I have to say, this was a very easy dish to prepare, makes a lovely presentation, and is very tasty!  The lemon zest and juice give it a very tart flavor so that it is in no way as plain as it looks.  It has a bite to it which we loved.  Total cook time of 23 minutes - what's not to love about that?

You can get the recipe here online:

ALL ABOUT INA FRIDAYS:

The first Friday of the month, food bloggers from many parts of the world join together in posting a favorite Ina recipe.  This month we have Salads, Soups and Sides. 

Stop in and see what all of our fine writers are cooking up today or any day:


Comments

Rocky Mountain Woman said…
It looks like a perfect way to straddle the seasons - not quite soup time but ready for something a little heartier.


RMW
September 6, 2013 at 10:31 AM
Alyce said…
I'm glad you told us how good it was. Sometimes pasta dishes DO look pretty simple when they're actually terribly tasty. (I'm just glad to have pasta sometimes.) Love broccoli, so I'll have to try this one. Stay cool in Alabama! It's going up to 92 today in Saint Paul; I can't believe it.
September 6, 2013 at 10:32 AM
Barbara said…
I haven't tried this dish...and I do love Ina's pasta salads. Looks great!
September 6, 2013 at 3:33 PM
Martha said…
Your pasta and broccoli looks delicious. Have added it to my ever growing list of Ina recipes I want to try!
September 13, 2013 at 7:46 PM
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