French Fridays with Dorie: Garlicky Crumb-Coated Broccoli

Let's face it, steamed broccoli doesn't have much sex appeal. Roasting is our preferred method, but it takes a little longer, because you need to briefly blanch the broccoli first. I usually toss it in a little olive oil and sprinkle it with Parmesan cheese before roasting, and then squeeze lemon juice over the top as it comes out of the oven.

This week's French Fridays with Dorie recipe, Garlicky Crumb-Coated Broccoli, provides another wonderful alternative. Dorie convinces us that rolling broccoli around in some buttery bread crumbs flavored with garlic, lemon and herbs is quick, easy, and transformative...and she's right on again, with another great recipe from Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours.

After attending Il Fornaio's Tuesday Night Tasting of Italian food and wine from the Basilicata region, I still had Italy on the brain. I pulled out my Italy: The Beautiful Cookbook, vaguely recalling a Sicilian swordfish recipe. When I read it again, I knew it would pair well with the broccoli and a few roasted fingerling potatoes.

Teglia di Pesce Spada is swordfish steaks marinated in white wine and garlic for about an hour, drained, sprinkled with a little breadcrumbs and chopped capers, and sauteed in a little olive oil with a periodic basting of the reserved marinade. At the end of the brief cooking, you pour a whisked mixture of olive oil, reserved marinade, and lemon juice over the top of the swordfish, cook a few more minutes, and add a few more capers for garnish.

We had a half of a lemon basil baguette left over from earlier in the week, so I tore that up, toasted the pieces briefly under the broiler, and whizzed them in the food processor to make my breadcrumbs for the swordfish and the broccoli. I substituted baby broccoli, also known as broccolini, which is a hybrid cross of broccoli and Chinese kale.

The broccoli requires a quick steaming, or blanching in salted water, and then it's tossed in the skillet where you have already prepared the garlicky crumb coating (butter, finely chopped garlic, bread crumbs, lemon zest, and chopped parsley). Quick. Easy. Sexy.

French Fridays with Dorie is an online cooking group dedicated to Dorie Greenspan‘s newest book, Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours. As members of the group, we have purchased the cookbook and cook along as much as we can. There is a new recipe each week, and we post about that recipe on Friday. We are asked to refrain from posting the actual recipes on our blog. The book is filled with stunning photography, and personal stories about each recipe, which makes it that much more intriguing.