Rapini and Creamy Parmesan Fusilli
By: Alli Shircliff
Published: Wednesday, July 6, 2011 - 10:48am

Ingredients




1 cup fusilli (or any type of pasta), dried
1/2 cup Parmesan
1 lemon, zested and juiced (separately)
1 garlic clove, minced
1 bunch rapini, roughly chopped
4 tablespoons creme fraiche
Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation

1 Bring a medium pot of water to a boil, adding a substantial amount of salt so the water is like ocean water.  Pour the pasta and cook according to the container's instructions for al dente...mine took about 10 minutes.  While this is going on, pull out a serving dish.  Sprinkle the Parmesan, lemon zest and garlic into the serving dish.  Using a small coffee or measuring cup, ladle out about 1/2 cup of the pasta water and set aside. 2 Once the pasta is cooked, strain and then pour into the serving bowl...reserve a little extra pasta water just in case you may need to freshen the sauce.  Toss pasta with the Parmesan and zest.  Add the reserved pasta water, creme fraiche, lemon juice, salt and pepper.  Gradually add in the chopped rapini.  If you need to add more creme fraiche, pasta water or Parmesan do so.  Toss until every ingredient is fully incorporated.  Indulge immediately with a smile, nice white wine and slice of bread.

About


Rapini and Creamy Parmesan Fusilli
Adapted from Amanda Hesser's Cooking for Mr. Latte
The original recipe calls for arugula as the bitter green.  But I wanted to experiment with the rapini from last week's farmer's market excursion, which turned out to be a colorful and nicely bitter substitution to the recipe.  But feel free to sub in any type of green you have on hand or want to try.  I also swapped in fusilli pasta for the original linguine.  But use whatever style pasta you wish.  Whole wheat or gluten-free would work just fine if you are so inclined.

Comments:
Kay  Perepchuk

so very good!! the flavors are perfect and the dish very easy to make. Used plain greek yogurt because that is what I have on hand!! Will make again..again
An Open Cookbook

What a great idea to use greek yogurt...thank you for trying the recipe!!