Reserved pasta water helps create a creamy sauce for this 30-minute pasta recipe, which is based on pasta con cime de rapa, an Italian dish made with spring turnips and their tops. Radishes and their greens tops have a similar mild flavor. No tops on your radishes? No problem. Simply swap in 4 cups baby kale for the radish greens.
Ingreadient
- 2 large bunches radishes with green tops (30 to 40 radishes)
- 12 oz. dry whole wheat orecchiette (3 cups)
- ¼ cup nutritional yeast, plus more for sprinkling
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- ½ to 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
Direction
- Trim greens from radishes, remove any tough stems, and wash 2 to 3 times in cold water to remove any grit. Drain well. (You should have about 4 cups.) Halve or quarter radishes.
- In a large pot cook orecchiette and radishes according to package directions for pasta, adding radish greens the last 5 minutes of cooking. Reserve 3 cups cooking water. Drain pasta and radishes.
- Add nutritional yeast, garlic, and red pepper to the still-hot pot. Add 2 cups of the reserved cooking water. Return pasta and radishes to pot; toss to coat. Add additional reserved cooking water if desired for saucier pasta. Sprinkle with additional nutritional yeast.
