Pasta with Radicchio & Thinly Sliced Beans
It's always great fun improvising when you have some nice fresh vegetables at home. I was going to make a simple spaghetti con aglio e olio this evening, but decided that I wanted to add a little something to "jazz it up" a little... the question was what?
So I opened the fridge and discovered that I have plenty of green beans there still, but I also had a half of a radicchio which was beginning to look a little down on its luck. Being a compassionate fellow I decided to put it out of its misery and chopped it up immediately using my sharpest knife... so don't worry- it didn't feel a thing!
This dish was hardly any more difficult than aglio e olio to make- nor did it take any longer!
I decided on "mezza maniche" tubes rather than spaghetti- but of course you can use any pasta you like for this.
Whilst the pasta was boiling away, I finely sliced the green beans on the diagonal and chopped the radicchio down into thin strips. In a frying pan, I heated up some olive oil and began to fry some sliced garlic, a little black pepper, a little thyme and a couple of pieces of lemon zest.
Once the pasta was done (8-10 minutes), I added the beans so that they could blanche for 30 seconds or so, then I drained it and added it to the pan along with the sliced radicchio. I grated a little fresh nutmeg onto it, added a little fresh olive oil and pepper, gave it a little sprinkle of grated salted ricotta- and ta-dah! A delicious pasta dish was served!
It tasted terrific hot, but would make a great alternative pasta salad served cold or lukewarm. Sure hope you all like it!
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