make | punchy pasta : penne arrabbiata (+ get your greens!)

It's getting lots colder in the land of Inghilterra (that's England in Italian, if you didn't know ;) ), so we wanted to make something this week that would fill us up, but still had some exciting flavours.

Pasta is pretty popular, and it's super cheap too! This was a use-up-what's-left-in-the-fridge dish, again, so if you have some greens, and some bacon in your fridge, a can of tomatoes, an onion, chilli flakes and some paprika in your cupboard, then you're pretty much good to go! Our Dad was a bit sceptical when we said we were making spicy pasta (with greens) (*we put the brackets in there to indicate we had to say that a little under our breath*) and to be fair, who knew this would work so well!? The sweetness of the greens is really brought out by slow simmering the tomatoes, and the addition of the smoky paprika, bacon and the spicy chilli just tastes great!

Another great thing to bear in mind is that when you eat this, you're not just getting carbohydrates, you've got your veg in there, and some protein too.  If you want to make this healthier, just use wholewheat pasta.  We used up a savoy cabbage, which tasted really nice, but it would be great with kale which is so very healthy for you! Green leafy vegetables are really good for you because they've just got so much fibre, along with lots of vitamins and minerals.  Kale and greens are really good because they have vitamins A, C and K, folate and potassium, as well as calcium.  Kale would probably even better than savoy cabbage in this recipe because it cooks much quicker.  Just make sure that whatever greens you use, you wash them well with lots of water because they do tend to hold onto dirt.

Once we cooked this pasta, we won our Dad over, and he said we had to put the recipe up on the blog.  So we hope you enjoy it too!

Enjoy today!!
- rosinaviolets    x

Penne Arrabbiata with Bacon & Greens
Serves 4

300g penne pasta
200g bacon (we used leftovers from a big ham we had boiled)
200g greens of your choice (shredded kale would be best)
1 onion, chopped finely
1 clove of garlic, chopped finely
1 400g tin of peeled plum tomatoes (or chopped tomatoes if that's all you have)
1 tsp agave nectar (makes your tomatoes really sing)
1 tsp (or more, or less, to taste) chilli flakes
1 tsp smoked paprika
pinch Maldon sea salt

• Get your two pots of water boiling, one for the pasta (as below), and one just plain for your vegetables.  TIP: When you cook pasta, you don't need any oil in the water so long it's on a really rolling boil, and it's salted.  It won't stick.  Don't worry, in this recipe you're not using the pasta water, so you're not eating the salt.  

• When the water's really hot, bung in your pasta.  Check the label to see how long it takes to cook, and then subtract a couple of minutes - you want it to be al dente, and it will cook in the residual heat of the sauce.  Set a timer to this length of time.  

• In the other pot of hot water, put your shredded kale (we also had half a courgette we wanted to use up, so we cubed that and put that in there as well).  

• Spritz a big pan with some oil and get it hot.  Fry (steam-fry if it starts to stick) your onion and garlic.  Stir in the spices and the bacon. 

• Once the bacon is cooked (if you're using raw bacon), throw in the tin of peeled plum tomatoes and use the back of the spoon to squash them down.  Turn the heat up a bit so it's bubbling away, and then add in your agave nectar.  If you have time, you could make the sauce in advance as the tomatoes will have time to really get yummy and reduce. 

• When your timer goes off, quickly strain the pasta and add it to the big pan of sauce.  Then strain your vegetables and add them too.  Stir together and quickly serve on hot plates with lots of black pepper.