Olivia Piepmeier

Mustard Cream Pasta

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Monday, August 15, 2022
Categories: main pasta
A watercolor illustration of a bowl of the mustard cream pasta from above. It's essentially a yellow-ish tan circle with some squiggles to represent the pasta and some shapes of green for the kale.

inspired by Food52

Ingredients

  • 4 tablespoons butter
  • 2 shallots (or just one big one? personal preference), diced
  • 4 garlic cloves (at least), minced
  • 1/2 cup dijon mustard
  • 2 cups heavy cream
  • 1 cup vegetable stock
  • 6 cups (or so) roughly torn kale (get at least one big bunch and it’ll be enough)
  • 2 teaspoon diamond crystal salt
  • pepper
  • 2 teaspoons honey
  • 1 pound rigatoni or other short pasta that holds sauce well
  • some white wine

Directions

  1. Set a big pot of water to boil over high. Salt it A LOT.
  2. Melt the butter in a large pot/dutch oven over medium.
  3. Add shallot and garlic and sauté until fragrant and soft, maybe 3-4 minutes.
  4. Stir in the mustard.
  5. Increase the heat to medium-high.
  6. Pour in the cream and vegetable stock.
  7. Bring it to a boil and then reduce to a simmer, stirring occasionally until slightly thickened, around 5 minutes.
  8. Reduce to low and add the kale, cooking for 1-2 minutes until the kale softens.
  9. By this point, you probably have a boiling pot of water and have added the pasta to it. Cook until al dente, receiving 1 cup of pasta water.
  10. Once the pasta is drained, add it to the sauce with a splash of pasta water.
  11. Mix, and add more water as you think is needed to incorporate it all.
  12. Add a splash or two of white wine.
  13. Add whatever else you need. 


Thoughts

99% of my kale recipes are for fall or winter. I’ve started to get kale in my CSA share and, not knowing what to do with it in August, made this recipe that I had saved some time ago. I made half the serving size above and Trey promptly asked why I didn’t make more, so, this is officially doubled from the original. With ingredients like this, how could it not be delicious? I do have a more autumnal pasta that is very similar (and will certainly make an appearance later), but this is a fine not-yet-fall recipe to use up this kale I keep getting.