Chef Sam Lomas takes us through the year with a recipe using a locally grown or foraged ingredient. This month he’s chosen kale.
Kale comes in all different shapes and sizes, and I have been known to get disproportionately excited by it, which is fortunate because there is a lot of it around at this time of year.
A kale like Red Russian lends itself to being served raw like a salad, macerated with a splash of lemon juice and a touch of red chilli, whereas a more robust curly kale responds very nicely to being tossed with a little oil and soy and baked in a low oven until crispy.
For this recipe, we’re using cavolo nero, a dark green majestic Italian variety, and a variety that will be preparing itself for the falling temperatures of autumn.
If kale is growing plentifully in your garden, this is an exceptional way of using up a lot of it at once, as once blitzed, it reduces to a rewardingly small amount. This recipe is a variant of one from the legendary Italian restaurant The River Cafe, somewhere that knows their pasta and, indeed, their kale.
October can be a month that clings on to the last of the summer with weakening fingers; little warmth in the air, but with days that are getting shorter and shorter.
This pasta dish works well with that contrast. The sauce is comforting and rich, but with an earthy freshness, topped with crunchy pine nuts and soft goat cheese, it makes a delicious midweek dinner.
Sam's first restaurant, Briar in Bruton, Somerset, is now open and taking bookings. numberonebruton.com/briar
@samjlomas
Spaghetti with a cavolo nero sauce, goat’s cheese, pine nuts and thyme
Serves 2
Ingredients
300g cavolo nero
2 garlic cloves, peeled
20g pine nuts
50g soft goat’s cheese
180g spaghetti or linguine
Extra virgin olive oil
2 sprigs of thyme, picked down to individual leaves
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Method
Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil.
Strip the cavolo nero leaves from the tough stalks. Add the kale to the boiling water along with the cloves of peeled garlic, and boil for 5 minutes.
Drain the kale and garlic and place in a jug blender or food processor with a very generous glug of olive oil. Puree for 2 minutes until the mixture is dark green and fairly smooth. Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Bring another pan of salted water to boil. Add the spaghetti and give it a good stir to ensure it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan.
While the pasta is cooking, toast the pine nuts in a small frying pan.
When the pasta is cooked, drain (ensuring some of the pasta cooking water is retained to loosen the sauce if necessary). Return the pasta to the pan and add the cavolo nero sauce and a drizzle of olive oil and add some pasta water if the mixture is a little thick.
Divide between two plates, and sprinkle with the thyme, pine nuts and torn chunks of the Capricorn goats cheese.
