This creamy, luxurious pasta doesn’t have to mean standing at the stove for hours and loading it with tons of heavy whipping cream. This creamy kale pasta shatters all those myths; a weeknight, restaurant-worthy pasta dish is ready in under 20 minutes. Using one very crucial Italian cooking method, the starchy liquid from your boiling pasta water is what creates a creamy, emulsified sauce. Blanching your nutrient-dense lacinato kale in your boiling pasta water while the pasta cooks at the same time, and then processing it with cashews or cream and garlic, is a very hearty and tasty meal.
Collect your Ingredients
You will need twelve ounces of dry pasta (rigatoni or paccheri are great!), one large bunch of lacinato, also known as dinosaur kale, 4 nice fat cloves of garlic, 1 cup grated fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano, 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, and 1 cup raw cashews, soaked in boiling water for ten minutes, or heavy cream for the sauce base.
Boil your Pasta Water
4 quarts will likely be sufficient to both salt your 12 ounces of pasta nicely and simultaneously cook your kale. Bring your water to a full, rolling boil and season generously with salt to the point that it tastes like the sea, as this will be your only opportunity to season the interior of your pasta.
Prepare your Kale and Remove Stems
Rinse the kale under cool, running water, and while holding one of the coarse, woody bottom stems with your non-dominant hand, with the other, strip the soft, green leaves down the length of the stem in one motion. Dispose of the coarse stems, and roughly chop the leaves.
Cook Pasta al dente
Pop your pasta into the boiling salted water and give it a stir straight away so that the pasta clumps together. You want to cook it for 2 minutes less than the packet instructions state, as the pasta will cook in the creamy sauce.
Build your Aromatics Taste
Put your thinly sliced garlic cloves and red pepper flakes into your hot olive oil in your big skillet, over medium-low heat. Stir constantly for 60-90 seconds. The garlic should begin to turn aromatic, but be sure not to let the garlic brown; the bitterness of the garlic will remain.
Pure your Creamy Green Sauce
Add your blanched kale, your cashews, which have been soaking, or your cream, and your garlic and oil from the pan, as well as your parmigiano and your 1 cup of pasta water (from step 4) into your high-speed blender. Blend until the color is vibrant green and smooth.
Toss and Sauce the Pasta
Add your green sauce into the colander of pasta and greens, and then add the pasta and greens into the skillet over medium heat, then add and toss until the pasta is covered in the slick, vibrant green sauce.
Plate and Serve
Split the creamy green pasta evenly between two warmed plates. Season with a good sprinkling of extra parmigiano and cracked black pepper, and a final drizzle of raw olive oil and some toasted pine nuts.
