Vegetarian

Jamie Oliver's Super Green Spaghetti

by:
February 11, 2019
5
16 Ratings
Photo by David Loftus
  • Prep time 2 minutes
  • Cook time 11 minutes
  • Serves 2
Author Notes

Excerpted from 5 Ingredients: Quick and Easy Food by Jamie Oliver. Copyright © 2017 by Jamie Oliver. Reprinted with permission from Flatiron Books. All rights reserved. Photography by David Loftus. —Food52

Test Kitchen Notes

Featured in: Jamie Oliver's 5-Ingredient, 15-Minute Pastas Are Weeknight Miracle Workers —The Editors

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Ingredients
  • 5 ounces dried spaghetti
  • 4 cloves of garlic
  • 7 ounces cavolo nero (also known as Tuscan kale, lacinato kale, or dinosaur kale)
  • 1 ounce Parmesan cheese
  • 1 ounce ricotta cheese
Directions
  1. Cook the pasta in a pan of boiling salted water according to the package instructions. Meanwhile, peel the garlic. Tear the stems out of the cavolo and discard, adding the leaves and the garlic to the pasta pan for 5 minutes. Pour 1½ tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil into a blender, then finely grate in the Parmesan. Use tongs to carefully transfer the cavolo leaves and garlic straight into the blender and blitz for a few minutes until super-smooth. Taste and season to perfection with sea salt and black pepper.
  2. Drain the pasta, reserving a cupful of cooking water. Return the pasta to the pan and toss with the vibrant green sauce, loosening with a splash of reserved cooking water, if needed, then divide between your plates. Dot over the ricotta, drizzle with a tiny bit of extra virgin olive oil, and tuck right in.

See what other Food52ers are saying.

20 Reviews

Nat P. April 5, 2022
Easy, healthy and delicious. My kids love love love this recipe. I always add basil to the mix as well.
Sskepi August 4, 2020
Love this recipe. I made it with gluten free spaghetti and added an jalapeño to the kale & garlic blend. So good, for those who like a little spice 😀😀
Jewelfish6 May 6, 2020
This recipe is a game changer for me. As I grew older I could not digest green leafy veg. But I found that if I baked them into chips I could digest them. Now with this pureed recipe I can eat more of my lovely super greens! We eat it at least once a week.
Annabanana2708 April 16, 2020
I LOVE this recipe. I make it regularly sometimes substitute the kale for spinach/courgette/broccoli. Anything green works brilliant. I've used cheddar cheese too if you don't have parmesan and it still came out green and creamy. Also very nice with linguine.
Annabanana2708 April 16, 2020
I LOVE this recipe. I make it regularly sometimes substitute the kale for spinach/courgette/broccoli. Anything green works brilliant. I've used cheddar cheese too if you don't have parmesan and it still came out green and creamy. Also very nice with linguine.
WoooPigSooie January 5, 2020
This is as easy as it sounds and my kids (4 and 6) loved it. I doubled the parm in the blender and added a few Tbsp of pasta water to the blender. Made the sauce smooth. And I used chickpea pasta which worked well. And surprisingly - it *really* only took 30 minutes!
islandM October 27, 2019
I made this recipe with slightly more garlic and yes, a good squeeze ioff lemon as suggested by others. It was lovely, creamy and very satisfying. The Colour us spectacular and I think this would go over well with children.
Stacey October 5, 2019
Loved this! I watched this episode of his PBS show & he put some of the reserved pasta water right in the blender to thin out the sauce during that step, so that's what I did. Simple & yummy pasta perfection!
Jenica June 25, 2019
Might be an amateur question, but why would you finely grate parmesan just to put it in a blender? Wouldn't the blender do that for you?
FrugalCat April 24, 2019
I used spinach with a penne shape. Came out great. But one ounce of ricotta for 2 people? Ha. I used more like 4 ounces.
RoastedBeet April 1, 2019
I loved this. I was a bit nervous about the amount of garlic so skimped a bit (using four cloves but basically doubling the kale) and wished I hadn't. I also tossed some pine nuts on top for crunch. Will try pistachios next time, and I might play around with a cheese other than ricotta.
Naomi G. March 6, 2019
Can you please post the measurements in Cups? Thanks so much!
Jsverige February 23, 2019
Substituted arugula as it was all I had on hand and it was marvelous—peppery, punchy and so pretty!
Marinella February 27, 2019
It was hard for me to not have the greens clumpy. Any tricks for the blender? The taste was amazing still!
nutcakes October 9, 2019
On his show he mentions you can use other greens-- he mentioned spinach or even broccoli.
Jsverige January 5, 2020
A Braun immersion blender will change your life and it’s such an affordable option for blitzing fibrous greens and achieving smooth saucey goodness etc...anyway that’s my tip.
Marinella January 6, 2020
Thanks for the tip!! I will get one!
Winness February 22, 2019
Not a kale fan here. I suspect spinach would work? It looks beautiful and worthy of the first course for company.
Brinda A. February 25, 2019
Spinach would very likely work, Cuocopazzo! Let me know if you end up making it that way.
nutcakes October 9, 2019
yes, he mentioned spinach or broccoli on his show and someone else commented they used arugula.