Caramelized Cabbage & White Bean Pasta Bake
This easy cabbage pasta recipe uses simple budget friendly ingredients to create a hearty dinner packed with flavor. I used savoy cabbage, but any green cabbage that you need to use up will be great here.
Ingredients
- 6 tbsp (80 g) salted butter
- 1 small - medium head green cabbage, sliced into long thin strands
- 2 shallots, thinly sliced
- 4 cloves garlic, crushed
- ¼ cup (60 ml) white wine, or 1 lemon
- 8 oz (225 g) dried rigatoni pasta, another short pasta such as penne will work too
- 14 oz (400 g) canned white beans, drained
- ¾ cup (75 g) pecorino cheese, or any Italian hard cheese
- 5 oz (150 g) ball of mozzarella or scamorza cheese, sliced - you can also use pre-grated mozzarella if you need to
- chopped fresh chives or parsley, optional - for garnish
Instructions
- Melt half of the butter over low heat in a large saute pan or deep frying pan. Add the cabbage, shallots and garlic and stir through, then add the remaining butter and let it melt as you continue to saute the cabbage.6 tbsp salted butter, 1 small - medium head green cabbage, 2 shallots, 4 cloves garlic
- For the next 25 minutes, saute the cabbage over a low-medium heat, stirring regularly, until it has significantly reduced down and is browning around the edges. If it sticks to the bottom at any point during this process, deglaze with a little splash of the white wine and lower the heat.
- Halfway through the cabbage's saute time, get some water boiling for the pasta and boil according to package instructions. Before draining, reserve a cup full of the pasta cooking water.8 oz dried rigatoni pasta
- Once the cabbage is done, pour in the white wine. Let it bubble and loosen any sticky bits from the pan. Once the harshness of the alcohol smell has died down, remove the pan from the heat.1/4 cup white wine
- Add the drained white beans, cooked pasta and pecorino cheese to the pan. Add a few splashes of the pasta cooking water and mix through, repeating until you have a silky coating around all of the pasta.14 oz canned white beans, 3/4 cup pecorino cheese
- If you're using an oven safe pan, you can proceed to the next step using the same pan. If your pan is not oven safe, you'll now need to transfer the contents into one that is.
- Arrange the sliced mozzarella or scamorza over the top, with a little more pecorino around the slices if you like, then place the pan under the grill / broiler just until the cheese has browned and crisped up. This is pictured with scamorza, which is a low moisture smoked mozzarella. It will look a little different if you use a high moisture mozzarella, but it should all be good!5 oz ball of mozzarella or scamorza cheese
- Serve with red pepper flakes and chives or parsley if you're using them.chopped fresh chives or parsley
Calories: 735kcal, Carbohydrates: 81g, Protein: 32g, Fat: 31g, Saturated Fat: 19g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g, Monounsaturated Fat: 8g, Trans Fat: 1g, Cholesterol: 93mg, Sodium: 634mg, Potassium: 1075mg, Fiber: 13g, Sugar: 11g, Vitamin A: 1065IU, Vitamin C: 85mg, Calcium: 570mg, Iron: 5mg