This recipe was an inspiration from Food & Wine Magazine. I came across Roasted Broccoli Steaks with Tomato Butter and Tapenade by chef Greg Vernick. I looked at the photo, read the recipe. While I was cooking I thought another onion would benefit the recipe. I cut the amount of stock to add but my sauce still came out too loose so I added a Tablespoon of tomato paste to make it right. I didn’t like the idea of adding tapenade so I added olives instead. And lastly instead of toasted crumbs I thought crushed Taralli crackers would be tastier. ANYWAYS****It came out FORKING DELICIOUS. Chef Greg Vernick’s recipe in Food & Wine Magazine gave me the inspiration to come up with what I got here. This recipe makes around 4 servings.

Ingredients for around 4 servings

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

sea salt – to taste (I used my home made lightly pecan smoked sea salt)

fresh ground black pepper – to taste

3 medium-small broccoli heads – cut in thirds threw the head like steaks

10 oz plum tomatoes – quarter

2 small red onions – cut in wedges

4 oz vegetable stock

2 Tablespoons unsalted butter – cut in small cubes

Optional – 1 Tablespoon tomato paste (if sauce is too loose)

4-6 olives – remove pits, slice or cut off of the pits ( I used cured black olives)

5 taralli crackers crushed

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F with a grill pan on the middle rack. Let this heat up at least 10 minutes.

In a large mixing bowl add the broccoli, tomatoes, and onions. Add the olive oil and salt and pepper to taste (around 2 teaspoons salt, 1 teaspoon pepper. Mix and arrange in a single layer on the grill pan. Turn everything over after 10 minutes and mostly everything will be done in another 10 or 15 minutes.

The tomatoes get blended with 1/2 of the onions (this should be done with a stick blender or you have to wait for this to cool with a regular blender) Slowly blend in the cubes of butter. If this is too loose add the tomato paste. Season to taste with salt and pepper. (I used around 1/2 teaspoon H.M. smoked sea salt and around 1/2 teaspoon black pepper.)

Arrange the plates

Put tomato butter on bottom of plate. Then add broccoli and onions, add olives and crushed taralli. I also added some cherry peppers stuffed with cheese.

A SPECIAL THANKS!!!!! To Food & Wine Magazine and Chef Greg Vernick for an amazing recipe to inspire what I’ve done here.