A healthy one pot pasta recipe video inspired by Anna Cole. Take your typical one pot recipe, add kale, and turn it from a carb meal into a green meal, at least thats how I look at it. Check out my video, then read through the recipe.
I read about this version of a healthy one pot pasta recipe in the the NY Times Food section, where they reviewed some cookbooks, one of which was Anna Cole’s A Modern Way To Cook.
Cherry Tomatoes Are A Secret Ingredient
Cherry tomatoes are key here, I think. They seem like these pedestrian items, but when you cook them down, they morph in to something more than a store bought tomato. Of course, garden fresh cherry tomatoes are even better, but use what you got.
Don’t forget to add the kale!
The pasta and most of the ingredients go in the pot at once, consequently, its super easy to make this. Even I can do it. Of course, I forgot to add the kale, but it worked out OK. As the spaghetti cooks, it releases starch into the cooking water. This starch mixes with the tomato juices to make a nice sauce.
Be sure to mix the pasta as soon as you add it in, and as it cooks. I didn’t stir it right away so the spaghetti stuck together a bit. Keep the lid off while it simmers, I forgot that one.
Chop the kale into smaller pieces than I did in the video. The smaller pieces mix together better when the dish is finished.
Easy to follow directions for you:
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes halved, store bought is fine here
- ½ lb spaghetti or other flat/thin pasta
- ¼ cup olive oil
- ½ cup grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 1 quart loosely chopped kale or swiss chard
- Bring 2 cups of water to a boil
- Break the spaghettin in half and add the spaghetti to the boiling water
- Stir to make sure the pasta doesn't stick together.
- Add in all the ingredients except the kale.
- Cook on a high simmer for about 6 minutes, until you see the tomatoes break apart and the pasta is almost cooked.
- Drop in the chopped kale, stir in and cover for a minute to steam the kale down.
- Take off heat, put in two bowls, season with salt and add cheese
Jim
Hi Eric,
Just FYI about one pot pasta dishes. Parts of Italy have been cooking pasta that way for centuries. Anna Cole didn’t invented it. I think the Sardinians are the people who always did it, but not sure. Anyway, that’s how I have always cooked pasta and I’m 64! Couple of suggestions. Cook the tomatoes with some anchovies or anchovie paste, red pepper flakes, and tomato paste for a while before adding the pasta. I never add much water at all, the tomatoes are watery enough, but I do add white wine. And I never cover the pot because that makes the pasta overcooked and mushy. Sometimes I toast the dry pasta in olive oil first and then add the other ingredients. I avoid cooking tomatoes or other acidic ingredients in cast iron because no matter how seasoned the cast iron pot is, there always is a metallic taste to the food.