Pasta Brocoli

What? Me worry? Why should I? I was only going away for one night. Each and every one of the boys gave his absolute assurance that everything would be all right in a motherless House of the Raising Sons. They're big boys, they insisted. Responsible. Everything would be okay. After all, what could go wrong in just one night? So I didn't pester them with phone calls. Just one to check the puppy had been fed and there was fresh water out for dogs and chooks. Everything was under control, they insisted. Have a nice time, Mum. Relax. So I did - and drove home next day feeling a wondrous sense of well-being in the radiant spring countryside, never suspecting the price I had paid for that one night out of town. Nobody knew how the shelves had fallen off the wall. None of the boys had been in the kitchen at the time when this massive calamity had occurred. But they had done a good job of clearing up all the breakages and had even thought of some much improved designs for replacement shelving. If I could just find some woodworking genius to execute them. Mysterious. Kven the puppy was somewhere else. I had no sooner surveyed the shambles of jars and storage pots that had survived the crash than the youngest teen rocked up from behind and surrounded me in a bear hug. "It's okay. He put ice on it," volunteered his brother. "It's not bad, Mum. Doesn't hurt much," added the towering baby of the family. As he released me, I saw his growing shiner and the cut above his eye. There wasn't a fight exactly. "Some dude" was the person who did it. The babe was only trying to defend one of his mates. And the dude had said he was sorry afterwards. Everyone was friends now, so it was all right. Please don't fuss. That the puppy had demolished the last of my surviving pot plants and every light in the house had clearly been left on overnight seemed neither here nor there after my other homecoming surprises. The boys were hungry and so was I. Clearing a path through the displaced kitchen paraphernalia, I hunted through the fridge for dinner. "Oh, weren't we supposed to eat that?" they asked of the previous evening's intended meal. If ever there was a tax to maternal ingenuity, this was it. But all the negatives of the calamitous homecoming were assuaged as we soothed body and soul with one of the simplest of Clayton's dinners. The trick to remember is that pasta is so versatile it goes with almost any thing- in this case, a bunch of bargain broccoli.

Sizzle the garlic briefly in the warmed oil,then toss in the broccoli, mixing well adding salt, pepper, chilli and half the parmesan. Mix this with the hot pasta & serve with more parmesan sprinkled on top. This dish can be made more sophisticated by adding a dash of brandy & half a cup of cream to the broccoli mix, warming it really well, & then mixing with the pasta.

4 GARLIC CLOVES, CRUSHED 1/2 CUP GOOD OLIVE OIL 1 BUNCH OF BROCCOLI, CUT INTO FLORETS AND LIGHTLY STEAMED, SALT FRESHLY GROUND BLACK PEPPER TO TASTE PINCH CHILLI POWDER 1 CUP GRATED PARMESAN FRESHLY COOKED PASTA (1 PACKET FOR 4 PEOPLE)