Green vegetable pasta with pangrattato

Food influencer Leah Itsines shares a green pasta with pangrattato recipe from her book Good Food Made Simple.

This is a simple but flavoursome pasta recipe rich with green vegies and fruit – kale, frozen peas and avocado. With fewer than one in 10 adults eating enough veg each day, this is a great way to up your vegetable intake.

Ramp up the tastiness with Danish feta and enjoy the added crunch from pangrattato – a crispy topping made with breadcrumbs.

Serves: 4
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 tbs olive oil
• 1 brown onion, chopped
• 3 cups (120g) chopped kale
• ¾ cup (100g) frozen baby peas
• 4 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 cup (250ml) vegetable stock
• 500g pasta shells
• 1 avocado, halved
• 1 tbs lemon juice
• 1 bunch basil, leaves picked
• 200g Danish feta cheese, crumbled

Pangrattato

• 1 tbs garlic-infused olive oil
• ½ cup (30g) panko breadcrumbs
• 2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest

Method

1. Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil.
2. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a saucepan over medium–high heat. Cook the onion for a couple of minutes, then add the kale and cook for a few more minutes. Add the peas and garlic and cook for two minutes, then pour in the stock and simmer for five minutes. Remove from the heat.
3. Add the pasta to the boiling water and cook according to the packet instructions. Drain the pasta well, reserving ¼ cup (60ml) of the water, and return to the pan.
4. Meanwhile, to make the pangrattato, heat the garlic oil in a frying pan over medium–high heat. Add the breadcrumbs and lemon zest and cook, stirring regularly, for a few minutes or until crisp and golden. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
5. Pour the vegetable mixture into a blender and add the pasta water, avocado flesh, lemon juice and basil, reserving a few leaves for garnishing. Season with salt and pepper and blend until smooth.
6. Stir the sauce through the pasta. Serve topped with the feta, pangrattato and reserved basil leaves.

This is an edited extract from Good Food Made Simple by Leah Itsines, photography by Ben Dearnley. Murdoch Books RRP $36.99.

Words by Leah Itsines
First published October 2022