So tonight, I'm making a very simple pasta supper.
So, we're gonna do a nice, smokey sauce that's a balance
of sweet and hot,
and we're gonna wilt in some dark leafy greens,
your choice of spinach or kale.
I've got about a third of a cup
of olive oil, so about six turns of the pan,
in our skillet over medium heat.
I have a big pot of water coming up to a boil
for our pasta.
I had an egg pappardelle in the pantry,
and I really like the egg pasta
with the flavors in this dish.
It's a nice balance to the paprika
and the cream we're gonna finish the dish with.
So, I have 12 crushed cloves going into the pan
and we're gonna let this cook very gently
until it gets really tender and sweet.
So, we're going to add our smoked sweet paprika next,
and about two teaspoons is what I threw in.
Red pepper flakes, or you can use a little cayenne pepper,
or I have hot paprika as well,
so I'm gonna put in half as much as the sweet
'cause you don't want it to be too spicy.
So, about one teaspoon of whichever one
of your dried spices you wanna use for your heat.
Couple tablespoons of fresh thyme.
When you are cooking dry pasta of any sort,
let the water come to a full boil first
so that the salt doesn't sink to the bottom
and scar your pots.
You wanna season the liquid because we use this starchy,
salty liquid to marry any pasta to any sauce.
To this, we're going to add a good cup
to a cup and a half of white wine.
And then, when that comes up to a bubble,
the alcohol starts to cook off
and the wine flavor concentrates
and gives us a nice acidity in the sauce.
Then, we're gonna add about two cups
or one jar of passata.
For the greens for this dish,
flat-leaf kale.
This is lacinato, this is Italian kale,
also called dinosaur kale in some grocery stores,
or flat kale.
Or, just good old spinach.
You can bring home some spinach and stem it.
If you're stemming something a little larger
and tougher like a shard or a kale,
you wanna curl you hands like a cat paw
and just pull the greens off of the stems.
So, I'm gonna stack up these guys,
our stemmed kale,
and then all I want you to do is,
just like when you chiffonade basil,
you're gonna stack them up
and just run your knife across
and thinly shred the dark greens.
Our passata goes in next.
Let that bubble a bit while the pasta finishes cooking,
and then I'm gonna stir in that cream
and start wilting in our greens.
So, we've got our egg tagliatelle.
Let that drain off for a sec.
I've got my reserved starchy water.
I'm just finishing adding the last of my kale,
I've already wilted some in.
So remember, our sauce,
I stirred in a little bit of cream,
our sauce, the passata went in after the wine.
We started with lots of garlic,
but cooked it very gently in olive oil
with the smoked sweet and the hot paprika,
and we've cooked that out now, lovely,
with all of our thyme running through there.
It's gorgeous, look at that, it's so pretty.
Such a pretty and simple dish.
And now, we're gonna do the fun part.
We're gonna take our pasta,
drop it into the hot tub,
and then we're going to add a little
of our starchy liquid,
turn this off, and add lots of cheese,
grated parmigiano, yum.
And then, give this a toss.
And then, we'll put it into a big ol' family-style bowl.
(audience applauds)
Come on.
Yum.