Greenest pasta ever: Kale orecchiette alla primavera

Not much intro needed: let's all celebrate spring by making pasta alla primavera!



INGREDIENTS (2 people for a main dish, 4 people as a side):
- any pasta you like! (I used my homemade kale orecchiette, click here for a recipe)
- a bunch of green asparagus, rinsed and trimmed
- 1 small container of snow peas, rinsed
- 1 cup of frozen peas
- 1 clove of garlic, peeled and bruised
- a few sprigs of fresh tarragon, leaves picked
- Parmesan, shaved
- a splash of olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste
Note: this recipe can be adapted to a vegan diet by using egg-free pasta


RECIPE:
- bring a pot of salted water to a boil and blanch the asparagus, snow peas and green peas for 2-3 minutes, then transfer into iced water to stop the cooking process. Keep the boiled water hot for cooking the pasta later.

- in a large skillet, add the bruised garlic clove into a splash of cold olive oil and cook over very low heat for a few minutes until the garlic becomes fragrant

Note: you do not want to fry the garlic golden here, you just want to infuse the oil and low heat is perfect for that
- after a few minutes, remove the garlic clove (it has served its purpose), add the cooled and drained blanched veggies to the skillet and cook for 5-7 minutes over medium heat

- meanwhile, bring the water back to a boil (it's ok if it has a green tinge from the blanching step) and cook the pasta until almost done.

Note: I like to under-cook my pasta at this stage, because I like them VERY al dente
Note 2: always reserve a little bit of your pasta water, it usually comes in very handy when making the sauce because it contains all the starch from the pasta and thickens beautifully
- when the pasta is almost cooked through, drain well and transfer into the skillet containing the vegetables. Toss well and add the chopped tarragon, half of the Parmesan and about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of pasta cooking liquid. Cook for another 1 minute over medium-high heat, or until the Parmesan has melted into the sauce and coats the pasta

- serve hot, sprinkled with fresh tarragon and a few shavings of Parmesan cheese
- Buon Appetito!

Homemade Orecchiette

I've been making fresh long pasta (spaghetti, tagliatelle and lasagna sheets) for a long time, but I only recently started making my own short pasta. How fun!!

A few weeks ago, I tried my hand at Orecchiette. Those short pasta are amazing for salads and I just love them with fresh tomatoes, mozzarella and basil in a Caprese salad.

I had mine alla primavera (recipe coming soon) and here's how I made them!



INGREDIENTS:
- fresh pasta dough (click here for a semolina dough recipe, or here for a kale pasta dough recipe)
Note: I used my homemade kale pasta dough recipe because I had some frozen on hand but it was a little too soft and in retrospect I would recommend using a semolina recipe for a firmer dough.

DIRECTIONS:
- shape the dough into slim logs (about, 1/2 inch in diameter), wrap in film and let rest in the freezer for about 20 minutes until very firm

- slice the logs into 1/8 to 1/16 inch thick "coins"

- press the discs between your thumb and index or middle finger and twist, just like you would if you were snapping your fingers together

- dregde in flour as you go and until ready to use in your favorite recipe (click here for a pasta alla primavera recipe)

Fresh kale garganelli and lamb-shiitake bolognese

This is the best. Pasta. Ever!

Not only is it healthy with a bunch of fresh kale in the pasta dough (click here for the recipe) and lots of fresh meaty shiitake mushrooms in the sauce, the bolognese has this round, velvety taste from the lamb that will make you want to lick your plate!

Here's how you can make it!



INGREDIENTS (4 people):
- 1/2 to 1 quantity of fresh kale garganelli (click here for recipe)
- 1lb ground lamb
- 1 8oz bucket shiitake mushrooms, sliced
- 1 onion, diced finely
- 4 cloves of garlic, grated
- 1 28oz crushed tomatoes
- 1 sprig of rosemary
- 1/4 cup of white wine
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste
- parmesan cheese and basil leaves for decoration


RECIPE:
- in a large pan, brown the lamb in the olive oil over high heat, add the onion and garlic when the meat is cooked almost all the way and cook another 2 minutes (or until the onions are translucent)

- add the wine, rosemary, tomatoes and shiitake and cook over medium heat for 45 minutes, adding water if the sauce gets too thick or sticks to the bottom

- ladle over freshly cooked kale garganelli (or really any other type of pasta you fancy!)

- sprinkle with a healthy dose of freshly grated parmesan cheese and decorate with a few basil leaves
- trust me when I say this is probably the best pasta I've had in a few years and abandon yourself into the wave of deliciousness coming your way ;)

Fresh kale pasta

So a couple of weeks ago I bought a huge bunch of gorgeous fresh kale. The problem is that since I only cook for myself (most of the time), I can't go through fresh produce fast enough! Last week, and before it had time to wilt any further, I embarked on the colored-pasta train. You know those healthy spinach pasta everybody raves about? Well, I made uber-healthy kale pasta. Ha!


INGREDIENTS (will yield about 1 to 1.5 lb fresh dough):
- 300g AP flour
- 3 eggs (thought I'd only need 2 at first, but I had to add another one mid-recipe)
- a bunch of fresh kale
- a pinch of salt


RECIPE:
- remove the ribs of the kale and blanch the leaves 1 minute in salted boiling water (the leaves should remain a vibrant green and keep their crunch)

- drain, pat the kale dry and pulse a large handful in a food processor (yields about 1 cup of shredded blanched kale)

Note: if you have more kale than you have use for in this recipe, you can absolutely freeze blanched kale and use in another recipe (for example: Kale pesto, kale omelet or scrambled eggs or even use in a healthy chunky vegetable soup or minestrone).

- in a bowl combine kale, flour, salt and eggs and mix until the dough is smooth and elastic (about 5 minutes kneading in a standing mixer with a hook attachment, or 10-15 with elbow grease)

- shape into a disc on a lightly floured surface and let rest in the fridge, wrapped in plastic for an hour

- when the dough has rested, put on a floured surface and roll it in a thin sheet (using a rolling pin or a pasta machine)

- shape into your favorite pasta shape: spaghetti, tagliatelle, parpadelle or you can use the whole sheets for a healthy green lasagna variation
- since Santa Claus brought me a gnocchi board for Christmas, I decided to shape mine into garganelli, a gorgeous ribbed short pasta: cut 1.5 inches squares and roll on the heavily floured board

Note: with this amount of dough, I only rolled out half of the recipe and yielded 4 servings of pasta. I froze the remaining dough wrapped in plastic and will use it another time.
- those pasta cook very fast (about 2-3 minutes in boiling salted water), they will rise at the surface when ready
- enjoy with your sauce of choice!