Cabbage linguine
There are a lot of cabbage pasta recipes out there that rely on braising the cabbage in butter. That sounds brilliant. Why aren’t I doing that?
Well, because sometimes, oh poor unfortunate sometimes, we don’t want fifty grams of butter in every portion and a twenty-minute simmer before we even get to cooking the pasta. Sometimes we’re tired, or busy, or abstemious, or afflicted with a poor medical disposition for packing delicious, delicious butter into our faces with glee abandon.
So for tonight I'm borrowing from my favourite quick pasta supper which cooks broccoli in with the pasta and brings it all together with umami and pasta water at the end.
You can pretty much infer the rest of this recipe by throwing the word "cabbage" at that last sentence, but here it is anyway, and it takes 15-20 minutes.
Ingredients:
Serves: 2 generously
Sweetheart cabbage, half a big one (see note)
Linguine, 160g or however much you personally use for two people
Pancetta or other bacon lardons, 100g
Cheese - something hard and sharp, 50g (see note)
Sage, a couple of big leaves
Notes:
Cabbage
You can use different cabbage, but it may need longer cooking time and end up slightly more astringent. Savoy especially so.
You could also use leafy greens.Cheese
Just "cheese", Roger? What gives?
Look, this is basically cacio e pepe with cabbage, and the cheese there is generally pecorino, or a pecorino/parmesan mix. But I'm usually making this for my lactose intolerant boyfriend, so it's Lactofree mature cheddar. Or you might enjoy a sharp, firm goats cheese. Mix it up. Have fun. So long as it’s bold, whatevs.
Instructions:
Set a pan of water to boil with some salt.
Remove the core from the cabbage and slice it finely - a little broader than the linguine.
Grate the cheese very finely. Roughly chop the sage. If your bacon is in rashers, cut it into small pieces.
Once the water is boiling, add the linguine, and turn it down just a touch so the boil isn’t too aggressive. We’re going to use the pasta water later, so we do want it to reduce a bit, but we don’t want it to go down to nothing. Give the pasta a bit of a stir now and then.
Set a timer for about three minutes less than the recommended cooking time on the pasta packet. That’s probably going to be 8 minutes.
Get a small frying pan to a medium heat and start cooking the pancetta in a little oil (or butter!). Stir periodically.
At the 8 minute/done-minus-3 mark, crank the heat back up on the pasta water and add the cabbage, stir it through, and let it simmer for the remainder of the pasta’s cooking time.
Once it’s cooked, scoop out about 150ml of the pasta water, and drain the pasta.
Add the sage to the pancetta and fry it briefly to release the aromas. Raise the heat and add about half of the reserved pasta water, stirring through so that it thickens and starts to form a sauce.
Add the cheese and whisk it in so that it also melts in and emulsifies. Let it out with more of the pasta water if you think it’s a bit thick.
Combine the pasta and cabbage mix with the sauce, working it through to coat and add a little more of the water if it still seems a bit dry - there should be a small amount of light sauce to it.
Grate some black pepper over it all and serve.
To set expectations, the level of saucing here is: “clings to the pasta adding flavour and leaves a little in the bottom of the bowl”. It’s starchy and silky and surprisingly rich for how little is in there, but it’s not a big wet mess. The greens should retain just a little bite and be big and savoury alongside the cabbage. You can also try other herbs than sage - I started making this with rosemary.