Spaghetti with purple sprouting broccoli, lemon and garlic

The trouble with cooking just for oneself is that one doesn't get through the food one buys quickly enough. Some way down the long list of 'Things I'm looking forward to about finally living with Sam' is not having to have the same meal three times in a row because I'm incapable of making a portion any smaller, or find creative ways of using vegetables that have been festering in the fridge too long.

That said, I'm not really regretting having bought a huge bag of local purple sprouting broccoli at the market last week. Tonight it made a very nice ten-minute supper, steamed for a couple of minutes over the pasta water and then fried in olive oil which I'd infused with lemon zest and sliced garlic. Halfway through eating it I remembered the basil plant whose scent competes amicably with that of the hyacinth on my kitchen windowsill, and which somehow I still hadn't got round to using since buying it almost 2 weeks ago. A few leaves of that, a generous squeeze of lemon juice and some parmesan finished it off.