There are some recipes where, as soon as you start to list off the ingredients, everyone around you perks up. You're spinning poetry; you're singing a song that speaks to them. It's why we love reading cookbooks as much as we love to cook from them: We are vicariously, imaginatively eating.
This recipe isn’t one of those. Instead of harp strings, it’s a can thudding down the stairs. You’ll have to take a leap of faith, as I did, and it will be worth it. I just hope you’ll realize it more quickly.
I first heard about this recipe more than three years ago, right after this column launched. The Kitchn started a conversation with their audience about what makes a Genius Recipe, and I was lucky enough to see what they came up with.
But I hesitated when I heard about this one, from reader cedargr0: “Broccoli, broccoli rabe, salami, raisins … jalapeños? Boiling the sauce down to dry … twice? I still don’t know why I was brave enough to make the this the first time. But it is FANTASTIC. Genius.” Cedargr0 forgot to mention that you top it with a fistful of shredded Asiago cheese at the end.
None of this sounds good. You've got a whole lot of aggressive flavors banging up against each other in what seems a misguided act of Mexitalian fusion. But Lynne Rosetto Kasper and Sally Swift of The Splendid Table know what they're doing, and how to shake up expectations without going too far. (For more reasons to overcome your skepticism, see their genius refried beans with cinnamon and clove.)
Here, the sweet raisins and softened onions temper the jalapeño’s spice and salami’s salty funk, and there’s just enough of the more agreeable variety of broccoli to make sure that the bitter rabe doesn’t take over, as it often does. Dousing the pan with water and boiling it all down (twice) also mellows any lingering attitude problems, by forcing everything to break down and mingle.
Beyond this recipe, which I encourage you to follow verbatim, there are two techniques at play here that you can use anytime.
First off: Instead of tossing your pasta with loose odds and ends, you can form a better, more cohesive sauce — unleashing their flavors and stretching them further — by boiling them down with a little water.
Second: Consider throwing vegetables in to blanch with your pasta — the water is already salted anyway, and it’s one less pot (and strainer) to clean. It’s a little daring, not being able to control exactly how done they are, but it pays off in unspent dishes and the pride that comes with efficiency — and you’ll get better at timing, the more you experiment. Here it’s broccoli, but it could just as easily be peas or greens, carrots or corn.
Not only is this dish better than you'd ever expect, but it makes a very good cold pasta salad the next day, too — a happy thing, because the recipe generously stretches a pound of pasta to feed four, with plenty to spare.
The Splendid Table’s Pasta with Two Broccolis and Raisin-Pine Nut Sauce
From "The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper" (Clarkson Potter, 2008)
Serves 4 as a main dish
For the sauce:
Good-tasting extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium red onion, cut into 1/4-inch dice
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
2 oz. Genoa salami, sliced 1/4 inch thick and cut into 3/4-inch dice
2 jalapeños, finely chopped (seeded if you want less heat)
4 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 heaping Tbsp. tomato paste
1 cup water
1/3 cup raisins
For the pasta:
1 large bunch (1 to 1 1/2 lbs.) broccoli
1 to 1 1/4 lbs. broccoli rabe
1 pound cavatappi, rotini, or fusilli
1/3 cup pine nuts, toasted
1 to 1 1/2 cups shredded Stella Fontinella, Asiago, or young sheep cheese
Bring 8 quarts salted water to a boil in a 10-quart pot.
Peel the broccoli stalks, and cut them into 1/4-inch-thick diagonal slices. Quarter the florets. Trim the broccoli rabe stems to within an inch of where the leaves begin. Pile up the stalks and slice them into 1/4-inch pieces.
Generously film the bottom of a straight-sided 12-inch sauté pan with olive oil, and set it over high heat. Add the onion and generous sprinkles of salt and pepper. Sauté until the onion is golden brown, stirring often. Halfway through the sauté add the salami and jalapeños. Once the onions are browned, blend in the garlic and tomato paste. Cook for 1 minute.
Stir in 1/2 cup of the water and boil it down to nothing as you use a wooden spatula to scrape up everything from the bottom of the pan. Repeat with the remaining 1/2 cup water. Once it is boiled off, stir in the raisins and pull the pan off the heat. Cover and set aside.
Drop the pasta into the boiling water. Cook, stirring often, for 3 minutes. Stir in the two broccolis and boil until the pasta is just tender. Scoop 1/2 cup of the pasta water out of the pot and set it aside. Immediately drain the pasta and vegetables in a colander.
Reheat the onion sauté over medium-high heat. Blend in the reserved pasta water, and add the pasta and vegetables and the pine nuts. Toss over the heat for 1 to 2 minutes, or until the pasta is lightly coated with the moistened sauté. Taste the pasta for seasoning. Turn it into a serving bowl. Pass the cheese separately.
This article originally appeared on Food52.com: http://food52.com/blog/11408-the-splendid-table-s-pasta-with-two-broccolis-raisin-pine-nut-sauce
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