Beetroot Noodles with Goat’s Cheese, Toasted Walnuts and Baby Kale
This pretty dish looks and sounds impressive, but is super simple to make. Beetroot juice turns the pasta a vivid pink colour and adds an extra dimension of taste to the spaghetti. Make it tonight!
Introduction
I must confess the clever notion of cooking pasta in vegetable juice is not my own; I read about it in an American food magazine on the tube one evening and could hardly wait to get home and try it. As well as turning the noodles a shockingly lovely pink, the reduced juice lends them a sticky vegetable sweetness which works particularly well with creamy, lactic goat’s cheese and bitter toasted walnuts, though that first evening I used a tiny hunk of salty pecorino that had been falling from the fridge door with irritating
regularity for some weeks, and that worked just fine too
Ingredients
| 200g | spaghetti or other pasta of your choice |
| 50g | walnuts |
| 300ml | beetroot juice |
| 4 | big handfuls of baby kale or other young greens |
| 100g | soft goat's cheese |
Method
Bring a large pan of well-salted water to a rolling boil, then add the pasta. Cook for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, toast the walnuts in a dry pan until aromatic, then roughly chop and set aside. Bring the beetroot juice to a simmer in a medium pan.
Drain the pasta and add to the pan with the beetroot juice. Cook for about another 5 minutes, until the noodles are al dente (exactly how long will depend on your pasta and your preferences) and the juice
is thick – be careful they don’t stick. If it does look a little dry before they’re done, stir in a splash more juice.
Stir in the kale to wilt, then season well to taste; the juice will be quite sweet, so it will be able to take a generous amount of salt and black pepper.
Divide between bowls and scatter with chopped nuts and blobs of cheese – the cheese can be stirred in by the eater, but it looks prettier pristine and white against the pink pasta. Serve immediately.
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