Sunday Night Pasta Programming: Kale Sauce with Calamarata
Vegetable sauces are becoming my pasta go-to
PARTANNA CALARMARATA
As of late, on any weeknight I’m ready for pasta doused in a blender veggie sauce. While I sit here tapping at my keyboard talking about it, I’m craving a bowl. I can’t get enough of this simple dish that also low-key makes me feel nutritious! I’ve always wanted to make a stark green kale sauce, which turns smooth and aerated when blended. This one is refreshing, pecorino-funk forward, vibrant and robust all against hot toothsome calarmarta. Your fork will scoop up ring after ring of calarmarta just so you can get up to grab more.
pesto but not
Kale sauce is similar to a pesto, but the kale is cooked and blanched before being blitzed in the blender. The ingredients are just the same: hard grating cheese, optional herb, olive oil, raw garlic, lemon.
calarmarata pasta
Calamarata pasta is the pasta made for calamari. Its purpose is intended to adorn a seafood sauce with its pretty hollow rings. But I also find this pasta works extremely well with a silky pureed sauce like this.
As tradition has it, this pasta shape comes from coastal Campania and the city of Napoli (some refer it as paccheri mezze). The pasta dish “La Calamarata” is made with a light tomato sauce, squid rings (calamari), garlic, and chili that’s finished en papillote or al cartoccio. The pasta is sealed in parchment paper and steamed in the oven. That’s one way to level up your pasta game!
batch & freeze
There are so many good sauces in the world, but not all can stand up to a deep freeze. These veggie sauces have your back. Once I made this kale sauce, I had to make it again, freeze a batch, turn it into a quick weeknight meal, and then proceed to try another variation. After kale, I turned to broccoli as my contender for a veggie sauce, which I also batched and froze. Let’s all think of the next veggie sauce – do report back.
Kale Sauce with Calamarata
Ingredients
- 10 oz lacinato kale, stripped from stem
- 3 scallions, cleaned and sliced
- Kosher salt
- 2 garlic cloves, grated
- 1/3 c Pecorino romano, plus more for serving
- 1/3 c Partanna Extra Virgin Olive Oil Unfiltered
- 1/3 c cold water
- 12 oz Partanna Calamarata
- Lemon zest for serving
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil (about 6-8 quarts). Add salt as desired and kale and cook until kale is soft, deep green, and tender, 5 minutes. Fill a large bowl with water and ice. Submerge cooked kale in an ice bath until cooled. Repeat with scallions, cooking for 1 to 2 minutes and shocking in ice water.
- Drain the water and fill the pot again for pasta. Bring to a boil. Add salt as desired and add calamarata, cooking until toothsome, 10 to 12 minutes. Reserve 1c. pasta water.
- To a blender, add blanched kale, scallions, garlic, and pecorino Romano. With the blender running, add water and olive oil until a creamy, smooth green paste forms. Check for salt and season as desired.
- Add sauce to pot of drained and cooled pasta, adding a little pasta water to thin out as needed. Serve with more pecorino romano and fresh lemon zest.
