Cabbage & Cannellini Pasta

July 21, 2009

090721cabbagebeans Cabbage & Cannellini Pasta

I found this recipe for Fresh Basil Cannellini Sauce at Molly’s blog, Organic Spark. I’d been searching for a way to use my arrowhead cabbage, and I was intrigued by the idea of cabbage (and beans) over pasta. Although I couldn’t quite wrap my head around how these ingredients would come together as a sauce, I decided to try it out.

Molly’s recipe calls for fennel and fennel seed, and though I enjoy those items I omitted them from my dish. I wanted to feature the flavor of my farm share basil and onion as prominently as possible instead. (I can see how the licorice flavor of the fennel would go very well with the basil. I think Molly feels about basil the way I feel about cilantro — I can’t get enough of its scent.) I used my whole arrowhead cabbage from this week’s share, and aside from leaving out the parsley (I didn’t have any on hand) followed the recipe.

This is really more of a pasta topping than a sauce. As it came together I felt very thankful that my dinner guests were my parents — they are both open minded about what makes a “good” dinner and embrace vegetarian cooking — I really didn’t find the contents of my skillet terribly appetizing. Served over whole wheat spaghetti, though, the flavor was good, fresh, and homey, especially with a bit of Parmesan grated over the top. My dad really loved it (he liked the texture and flavor of the cabbage, especially), and my mom enjoyed it too. I liked it well enough, and it was very filling, but ultimately I felt like I was eating a nice, chunky vegetable soup over my pasta. In the future, I would rather recast these ingredients (with the fennel next time) as a soup, adding more vegetable stock and perhaps a small pasta like ditalini to the broth.