The accidental but very fine indeed pasta recipe
April 17th, 2007
No one will be more surprised than I was at how good this pasta turned out to be. I had read a Pugliese recipe for a contorno, or side dish, and 1) I didn’t need a side dish and 2) it had tomato paste in it, which I do not buy. Pugliesi, however, use the cherry tomato much more than I am used to anywhere else and they always keep them on their branches for a while to sweeten and strengthen them. I had a couple of branches I was experimenting with so I figured why not turn the recipe into pasta and why not use the saved-up cherry tomatoes instead of tomato paste?
I was expecting edible. I didn’t bother to write anything down or photograph the dish. I got super! But no recipe nor photo existed until two days ago.
The ingredients include (per person):
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced
1 tablespoon of terrific olive oil from Puglia or the best olive oil you know.
1/2 onion, chopped
a good sized, generous pinch of red pepper flakes or crushed red pepper (peperoncino)
1/4 small head of white (cavolo cappuccio) cabbage, cleaned, cored and sliced into the thinnest slivers you can do with a knife.
5 or 6 cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered
65 to 100 grams dry weight of penne or other hard wheat eggless pasta
salt to taste
more oil for dressing the finished dish
Start water to boil for the pasta. Heat a large frying pan that will hold the pasta as well as the sauce. Put the oil in the pan and the garlic slices, chopped onion and the red pepper flakes then sauté them until the garlic just turns blond. Add the cabbage and stir it in well. Salt all of it to help the sautéing process.
By now the pasta water should be boiling, so throw in some coarse salt and then the pasta. Stir it up once and let it boil to form some foam on top. Using a ladle, add about 1/2 cup of the foamy pasta water to the frying pan. Watch the sauce, it may need even more water later because it does seem to disappear fairly quickly. There should be a bit of juice in the bottom. Add the cherry tomatoes and stir in. They should very quickly combine with the juices and oil, and what is odd is that it seems to thicken a bit. Cook this about 8 minutes, not more. If your pasta has not reached really al dente by that time, turn off the heat, then re-ignite the flame when you add the pasta.
When the pasta is done but quite firm still, drain it and throw it into the frying pan. Cook and stir for a minute or two. Taste it for salt and correct if necessary. There should be a noticeable heat to it, but nothing like sinus-clearing, Thai or Indian heat, just a gentle peppery mouth sensation. Serve the pasta into a flat soup bowl and drizzle fresh, raw oil over it for the last nuttiness that suits so well the cabbage and peppers.
You may have to trust me on this one, because it doesn’t read gourmet, but if you’ve cooked my recipes before, what have you got to lose? Other than faith in me, that is.
So, I am going to submit this to Presto Pasta Nights at this blog. Let’s see how this unusual take on cabbage plays in the bigger world.
Entry Filed under: Food, Italy, kitchen stuff, pasta, primo, economical, Italian food, easy, cabbage, cavolo, fast, rapida
9 Comments Add your own
1. Ruth | April 17th, 2007 at 11:58 am
I never would have thought to put cabbage in a pasta dish, but your’s sounds wonderful. Thank you for joining the Presto Pasta Night gang and for sharing the recipe.
2. Lynnegh | April 17th, 2007 at 3:55 pm
After the last (and great!) cabbage dish, I need to try this one as well, but there’s this small problem. Have you any suggestions to offer for substitutions for the cabbage? Fresh Italian produce is in REAL short, as in non-existant, supply here.
3. Dora | April 17th, 2007 at 5:10 pm
Judith, is cabbage the same as verza? I am getting really confused on what to buy here as I don’t know the names of the food in English and many times in each Italian region we call things in a different way, so right now I don’t know what’s cavolo cappuccio and what is cabbage, I know what verza is though! :)
I am determined to cook a lot more veggies, I used to eat a lot when in Italy but Jim and Jonathan don’t seem to be used to them so much. So far I’ve cooked beans, chikpeas, peas cauliflowers and they both liked everything, Jim had some doubts when I told what I was cooking but as soon as he tried it he loved it, Jonathan is another story, most of the times I need to blend the beans and tell him it’s meat or something else to make him eat it, if he knows what it is he won’t even try, I guess it’s the same for every child, but I am not short of creativity and I can always find ways to trick him.
Another question: in Italy we have scarola riccia and scarola riccia, so far I’ve only found one type of escarole here that is the liscia one. Is there a different name for the scarola riccia? It’s the one I prefere to make the pizza di scarola (the liscia is ok but the riccia is better), another typical neapolitan dish that is great to make kids eat veggies.
I will never be able to thank you enough for your help, most of the times I don’t find what I need simply because I don’t know the name in english, and it’s right there in front of me!!!!
4. Judith | April 17th, 2007 at 6:16 pm
Cabbage 101. Plain cabbage like you make corned beef and cabbage with is cavolo Cappuccio. That is what is in this dish.
Verza is Savoy cabbage in the US. I tried it once and it wasn’t good in this one.
So just buy plain old round white cabbage and off you go.
As to scarola riccia, you’ll have to ask a local Italian, because I don’t know. You could grow it, though.
5. Dora | April 17th, 2007 at 7:35 pm
I am not so sure I want to grow my own veggies, I will start to work soon and I might not have that much time anymore. Jim wants me to and has bough a lot of seeds to try to convince me but unless he is willing to help I won’t kill myself, we also need to find the right place, the back garden is taken by the dogs who have turned it into moon land with all those craters and unless I put high voltage to zap them if they get close the veggies there wouldn’t survive longer than an hour.
6. Jane | April 17th, 2007 at 8:48 pm
Ok Judith. Casey and I will try to make this–it’s not green and sounds good.
7. Lynnegh | April 18th, 2007 at 6:00 pm
Thanks for cabbage 101, Judith. I took notes…
To Jane - How can any dish that requires 3 cloves of garlic per serving be bad?
8. Judith | April 19th, 2007 at 6:50 am
By burning the garlic— ughg!
9. marsha | April 19th, 2007 at 3:00 pm
Looks great, sounds great - now how about coming back to the US and cook for some “would be very grateful” cousins? I remember Ma, Pa, Warren and I visiting you all in ME when we were young. You cooked pasta and when making the sauce you couldn’t remember if you kept adding crushed red pepper in. That night you set our soles on fire!!!!!!
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