I had a lot of lovely broccoli for a solo diner, and so I figured one way to make use of the rest (including the stalk) is to make a broccoli pesto. This one is vegan, and I substituted herby garlicky homemade breadcrumb/croutons for cheese, but you can do cheese or both. Here is what I did:

Set some pasta to boil in a pot of salty water. Chop some broccoli drop in a pot of boiling water for about a minute or so to blanch it and then drain.

To your food processor, add broccoli, a generous handful (about 1/2c) of herbs you like (I used mainly parsley with some basil and mint), 1 tbsp of nutritional yeast, a couple of cloves of garlic, a handful of nuts (pine nuts or almonds are nice, I used walnuts here) and a splash of citrus (lemon juice or in this case I used freshly squeezed orange because I had oranges from my veg box). Pulse this until combined. Add a glug of olive oil (maybe 1/3c) and pulse again. Add salt, pepper, Aleppo pepper to taste.

Drain pasta and save a cup of pasta water if you want it creamy like I did. Toss the pasta with pesto and add a bit of pasta water to make it a bit looser and creamy. Top with homemade croutons made by breaking up stale bread into bits, tossing it with dried herbs (and Italian mix like basil, oregano, fennel) and some onion and garlic powder, and sautéing that until crispy. Done and done.