The 15-Minute Ina Garten Pasta My Whole Family Loves

When I’m feeling like I’ve run out of ideas for dinner, it’s fun to revisit classic cookbooks for inspiration. I’ll spend a few minutes browsing my cookbook shelf, hoping to land on something that not only sounds good to me, but that my kids will get excited about too. 

For one recent dinner, Ina Garten came to the rescue with her Broccoli & Bow Ties. It is as much a broccoli dish as a pasta dish, so it makes sense that the vegetable gets top billing in the recipe title. It calls for eight cups of florets, which for me was the yield from three large crowns of broccoli. Combined with a half pound of pasta, this makes for a light main—or a starchy vegetable side. 

How To Make Ina Garten’s Broccoli & Bowties

Not counting the time it takes for a large pot of water to come to a boil, you’ll only spend about 15 minutes in the kitchen throwing this dish together. It is a slight pet peeve of mine when recipes don’t count parts of the process like water boiling, though. I recommend using that time to get your florets prepped, zest and juice your lemon, chop the garlic, and toast your pine nuts. 

Once the water comes to a boil, everything happens very quickly. First, you give the florets a quick cook in salted water before you transfer them to a large bowl. Next, you boil the pasta in that same water and simultaneously throw together a quick skillet sauce of olive oil, butter, garlic, and lemon. When the pasta’s done cooking, you add it to the bowl with the blanched broccoli, pour in the sauce, toss everything together, and sprinkle the pine nuts on top. 

Easy, right? I like this style of cooking so much. There’s a breeziness to the way you zip through all of the prep steps, and the end result is very good, especially for quick weeknight cooking. The fresh lemon and broccoli offset the rich butter and pine nuts, and the pasta acts as a base for everything.

Why My Whole Family Loves Ina Garten’s Broccoli & Bowties

This dish went over well in my house, especially when my girls got to add their own “sprinkle cheese”—a.k.a. grated Parmesan—at the table. They already love pasta and broccoli, so it wasn’t much of a stretch to assume they’d be happy with the meal. We ate it alongside some chicken drumsticks that I started in the air fryer at the same time the pasta water went on the stove to boil. 

Ina’s just so great, isn’t she? These sorts of recipes remind me why she’s been such a beloved fixture since the early 2000s, when she first welcomed us into her Hamptons home kitchen. This recipe goes back to those beginning days of her career. It’s featured in her 2002 cookbook Barefoot Contessa Family Style and in a 2003 episode of “Barefoot Contessa.”

On the show, she cooks a celebratory meal for some friends and their two young daughters as part of a kids’ party-themed episode. I love the idea of serving this as part of a sweet little birthday dinner at home.