Roasted Broccoli by Guest Chef Brook

Now I am about to change your vegetable life with this recipe. I have made it multiple times and NEVER knew broccoli could taste like this. I am telling you to try this. Try it today. You will die and go to heaven, come back to life and make it again. Promise. I adapted this recipe from Barefoot Contessa and made a few changes that suited me. Bless you Ina and your multi-million dollar home in the Hamptons. You can also replace the broccoli with asparagus. This isn't an exact recipe. Everyone has varying degrees of love for garlic and lemon so adjust it to your taste.

lots of broccoli (seriously I dump as much broccoli on the pan as I can fit in a single layer)
4-5 garlic cloves, peeled and coarsely chopped
olive oil
kosher salt
fresh ground black pepper
1 medium lemon
Zest of half of a lemon
1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cover a baking sheet with foil. Wash your broccoli and dry completely. You won't get a good crisp on it if you don't dry it. You could wash it earlier in the day and let it air dry. It is a very important step. You want small to medium sized florets, cut them if they are too big. Place broccoli on foil in a single layer and drizzle with olive oil. Don't drench it but give it a nice coating of a few tablespoons. Toss this around. Sprinkle broccoli with lemon zest and squeeze the juice of half your lemon over broccoli. Add salt, pepper and chopped garlic and toss this all around getting everything well coated. Roast in oven for about 15 to 20 minutes. You want the broccoli to get crispy in spots and be a dark green color. You'll see it start to turn dark brown in spots and this means its getting good, really good.

Once the broccoli is fork tender and crispy to your liking take it out and if you are a lemon lover like me go ahead and squeeze the other half of the lemon all over the broccoli. It is a good idea to taste it first and see if you like the level of lemon flavor. Sprinkle your grated Parmesan on and let the heat from the broccoli melt it slightly. I like it with or without the Parmesan. The garlic gets roasted and isn't strong at all but is amazing with the lemon. I seriously can eat a whole pan of this stuff. Remember the broccoli is going to cook way down so it may look like a lot initially but once it's roasted it will be about half the amount.