Description
This is my take on a kale pesto pasta – it’s vibrant, packed with greens, and screams spring.
To balance out the greenness of the kale itself, we’re also incorporate beautiful pink roasted radishes, burrata, and fava beans.
Ingredients
Units
Scale
For the kale pesto:
- 1 bunch of Dino kale, blanched then squeezed
- 1 bunch of basil, blanched then squeezed
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- zest of 1 lemon
- juice of 1 lemon, about 2 tablespoons
- 1/3 cup of parmesan cheese
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 6 grinds of black pepper
- 1/3 cup of pine nuts
- 1/2 cup of olive oil
For the pasta:
- 1 bunch of radishes, halved
- 1 lb fava beans, peeled, blanched, peeled again (see prep instructions above)
- 6 ounces of fresh pasta (can also use dried pasta)
- Kosher salt
- Black pepper
- 1/3 cup pasta water
- 4 ounces of burrata
- extra virgin olive oil
- maldon salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400F.
- Halve the radishes then place this onto a baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil, kosher salt, and black pepper, then roast this in the oven for 8-10 minutes.
- Prep the fava beans and remove the beans from the pods.
- Bring a pot of water up to a boil for all the blanching projects.
- While the water is coming up to a boil, prep the kale and basil – remove the leaves from the stems.
- Blanch the fava beans for 15 seconds, then transfer this to an ice bath.
- Then, blanch the kale in boiling water for about 1 minute, then transfer to an ice bath (this can be the same ice bath.
- Blanch the basil in boiling water for about 15 seconds, then transfer to an ice bath. Keep this water in the pot for the pasta.
- Squeeze out the excess water from the kale and basil, and set this aside (or transfer directly to a food processor).
- Remove the fava beans from the ice water and peel one last time. Set aside the beans to top on the pasta.
- In a food processor, combine the blanched kale and basil, lemon zest, lemon juice, parmesan cheese, garlic, salt, sugar, pepper, and pine nuts.
- With the food processor running, slowly drizzle in the olive oil until the pesto reaches your desired consistency. Adjust seasoning if needed. Set aside.
- Bring the pot of water back up to a boil (it’s 100% ok that the water is slightly green). Add the pasta and cook according to package instructions until al dente (if using fretting pasta, about 2 minutes). Reserve 1/3 cup of pasta water, then drain the pasta.
- In the same pan, add 2/3 cup of the pesto and the reserved pasta water. Let this come to a simmer, then add in the cooked and drained pasta. Toss together, then taste, adjust seasoning, and plate. Top with the roasted halved radishes, fava beans, and a few spoonfuls of burrata.
- Drizzle each burrata piece with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle with Maldon salt.
- Serve immediately and enjoy!
Notes
- If your kale pesto starts to look like it’s starting to separate (you’ll start to see oily bits and white spots), it means that it “broke”. This actually happened to mine, and it was probably because I didn’t squeeze out enough water after I blanched the basil and kale. You’ll want to fix this, as a broken sauce won’t stick to your pasta and you’ll be left with an oily feeling sauce. To fix it, I blended mine in a vitamix (or any blender you have) and that did the trick. You can also make sure to squeeze out as much liquid as possible from your blanched greens.
- If you want to make this an easy weeknight dinner, you can do so by getting store bought pesto. That would make this a 30-ish minute meal (yes – even including peeling and blanching the fava beans!)
- Make sure to taste your pesto. I added a teaspoon of sugar to balance out the bitterness of all that kale. You can omit the sugar initially and just add it in if you desire.
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes