Farfalle “Risotto” with Spinach
Spinach is abundant and inexpensive this time of year, with large fresh bunches with beautiful purple hued stems selling for only $1.29. When spinach is this fresh, in season, it’s a whole other vegetable that can really carry itself in a dish. The leaves are more tender, more flavorful, just more enjoyable in general really, without that squeaky toothed “green” residue hanging in your mouth. Even still, there’s only so much spinach one can eat, and it’s not particularly filling on its own.
I first read about this technique for cooking pasta when I was working on the Different Dinner Project and hadn’t made it since, so I decided to give it another go. Generally when you cook pasta, you do so in a large pot of rapidly boiling water. With this method, you cook the pasta gradually, ladle by ladle, and stir to release the surface starch to make a creamy broth and yield perfectly al dente noodles within, much like you would prepare a risotto. I don’t know what a proper term for this method is called, risotto is certainly not it, but it gets the point across.
Instead of adding sauce to cling to the pasta after cooking or finishing the preparation of the sauce in the pan a la minute, the flavors you cook with seep into the pasta the entire time. Cooking pasta in this way also adds time in terms of actual cooking length and stove hovering. As I am the kind of cook that likes to linger around the stove and tends to anyway, this is not a concern for me, but if you’re looking for a time saver, this is certainly not it. It is, however, a great way of coaxing the best out of simple ingredients, giving a slightly nuttiness to the pasta itself (which I would assume would only improve when using whole wheat varieties) while both absorbing more flavor and giving a greater contribution to the sauce itself.
- 4 cups chicken stock (plus water, if needed)
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 8 ounces farfalle (bowtie) pasta
- 4 ounces dry white wine
- 1 bunch of spinach, rinsed thoroughly and roughly chopped
- 1 tablespoon cold salted butter
- 1/2 lemon
- salt to taste
- Bring the chicken stock to a boil over high heat in a medium sauce pan on the backburner, then reduce the heat to a simmer.
- In a separate pan, heat the olive oil with the garlic, pepper, nutmeg and pasta over medium heat. Continue to cook until fragrant, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking or scorching.
- Add the white wine and reduce until nearly evaporated, then add a ladle full of the chicken stock. Continue cooking the pasta, allowing the ladle of stock to absorb before adding an additional ladle, until it can be easily pierced with a fork but still has a slight toothiness when bitten. If all of the stock has been used, simply use water in its place.
- Finish the dish by adding another ladle of sauce and all of the spinach. It will completely overload the pan at first, but gradually fold it in and it will cook down considerably in a minute or two. Remove the pan from the heat, stir in the butter and season to taste with salt. Serve immediately with a squeeze of lemon.
Very original way to make pasta, I would never have thought to do that. Will have to try it.