Kale and White Bean Pasta

Kale and White Bean Pasta 

This is one of my standard dinners. It is quick, easy and cheap but best of all it takes advantage of what we always have growing in the garden – greens. The white beans soak up the flavors of the onions and herbs while the kale adds color and a bit of crunch. I usually serve it as a main course but it could easily be a side dish to something light like grilled chicken or fish.

This recipe calls for kale but you can use other greens as well or a mix. I regularly use curly kale, dinosaur kale, swiss chard and arugula when I cook this depending on what is available. Collard and mustard greens and bok choi generally don’t work as well.  

It is really hard to measure greens. They are really bulky when they are raw but they cook down to a quarter the size or less. My rule of thumb is to chop until I think I have enough and then add another handful. If I had to measure I would say take your standard plastic grocery bag and pick enough to fill it half full. By the time you pull out the middle ribs and chop them up that should be about right.

For the herbs, I always use rosemary because I like it and always have it in the garden. Other herbs that I have use both fresh from the garden and dried include basil, oregano, garlic chives and parsley. If you don’t have fresh ones, use dried. Also, don’t be afraid to use a lot. It’s pretty hard to ruin a dish with too many herbs and pretty easy to not put in enough.

What do I need?

Lots of Kale or other greens

¼-1/2 cup Olive oil

1-2 cups White wine

1 Onion

1 can White beans

1 large sprig Rosemary and other herbs

1 pound pasta - cooked

Salt & pepper

Parmesan cheese

What do I do with it?

~ Put the oil in a pan and put it on low.

                If the pasta is not already cooked, then cook it while you make the sauce.

~ Chop the onion and add it to the pan

Make the onion pieces as big or small as you like. You don’t want the onion to sizzle so much as sweat.

~ Clean the kale, take out the center rib and chop the leaves.

                Again- the size of the pieces is up to you but for this recipe I often like to cut them small so they get evenly distributed through the pasta.

~ When the onion starts to get translucent, add the wine, beans and kale

~ Strip the leaves off the rosemary sprig and throw them along with salt and pepper and any other herbs you are using

~ Cover it and let it simmer gently for 10 minutes or so.

                The greens should turn a darker shade of green and wilt when they are ready.   

~ Taste it. Add any additional salt/pepper/herbs it may need

                The consistency of the sauce is up to you but you want to make sure it will cover your pasta. It is easy to thicken it by mashing up some of the white beans in the pan. If it looks too thick add a little wine.

~ Put the pasta in a large bowl and add the sauce on top and give everything a stir to get the pasta coated evenly.

~ Put into bowls and top with Parmesan cheese and additional fresh herbs.