green garlic pasta

Adapted from “Green Angel Hair with Garlic Butter” by Deb Perelman on SmittenKitchen, also featured in her cookbook “Smitten Kitchen Keepers.”

Ready in 1 hour-1 hour 15 minutes

Serves 4 people

Ingredients

• ½ cup or 4 oz of butter, salted or unsalted (one standard US stick)
• 1 large head of garlic
• Kosher salt
• Lemon
• 6-8 oz frozen chopped spinach (½ of a 12-16 oz package, the bag kind, not the brick kind) or 5 oz fresh spinach
• Black pepper or red pepper flakes
• 1 pound or 16 oz of your favorite pasta
• Optional, to serve: Parmesan or Pecorino or your other favorite pasta topping cheese

Equipment

A small (2-cup) baking dish OR 2 8-oz ramekins
Blender OR food processor

Directions

Click on each bullet point to expand more detailed instructions.

Heat oven to 375° F. Cut stick of butter into 4 pieces if using 1 baking dish, 8 if using 2 dishes. Cut garlic through its equator. Cut lemon in half and set both halves aside.

1. Preheat the oven to 375° F.
2. Unwrap the stick of butter.
   1. If you have 1 larger baking dish, cut the butter into 4 approximately even pieces (no need to be too precious with this, it’s going into the oven to melt).
   2. If you have 2 smaller ramekins, cut the butter into 8 approximately even pieces.
3. Gently peel the outermost layer of papery skin off the head of garlic, ensuring that enough remains to hold the cloves together.
4. Using a sharp knife, carefully cut through the equator of the garlic head to produce a top piece (with the stem) and a bottom piece (with the root).
5. Cut the lemon in half, setting aside for later.

Place butter in bottom of baking dish(es) and add a pinch of salt (more if using unsalted butter). Place garlic halves, cut side down, on butter. Cover dish(es) tightly in foil and place in oven for 40-45 minutes.

1. Lay 4 slices of butter at the bottom of each baking dish you are using. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt, or two pinches if you used unsalted butter.
2. Being careful not to lose your cloves, place the top half of the garlic, cut side down, on top of the butter in the dish.
3. Repeat with bottom half of garlic, knowing that the root will do a better job of keeping the cloves in place than the stem does.
4. Wrap baking dish(es) with a tight layer of foil (we want things to get steamy in there).
5. If using ramekins, place both on a baking sheet to make removal from oven easier.
6. Place in oven and SET A TIMER for about 40 minutes. If you want, you can set the timer for 30 minutes to tip you off when it’s time to start the noodles, and then just set for another 10-15 to make sure the garlic is completely soft and cooked through.

Begin boiling well-salted water for pasta just before garlic finishes. Thaw spinach if frozen. When garlic is done, remove from oven and unwrap foil. Release cloves from skin into the butter.

1. When the garlic has about 15 minutes left in the oven, fill a large pot approximately halfway with water and add two generous three-fingered pinches of salt. Set on the stove over medium-high heat to bring to a boil.
2. If using frozen spinach: Empty the spinach into a fine-mesh sieve or colander. Run warm water over it until the big chunks break apart and you can pinch most of the small chunks apart with your fingers. Squeeze the water out of the spinach with your hands two to three times, until you can’t easily get more water out.
3. When timer for garlic goes off, take it out and TURN OFF THE OVEN. Poke a clove with a fork or paring knife; it should be soft, giving in easily, and there should be some caramel-colored browning around the edges. Let the garlic sit in its baking dish(es) to cool.
4. Using tongs, pick up one garlic half and squeeze gently to release the cloves back into their baking dish with the butter. If needed, use a paring knife to loosen the more stubborn cloves.

Cook pasta one minute less than al dente. Reserve 1 cup pasta cooking water. Drain pasta, saving pot for sauce. Add spinach, garlic butter, juice from half the lemon, salt, and pepper to blender and blend, adding reserved pasta water as needed to loosen. Taste and adjust seasoning.

1. When the pot of water comes to a boil, add your pasta and SET A TIMER for one minute less than the package instructions for al dente.
2. When the pasta timer goes off, drain pasta in sieve or colander and TURN OFF THE STOVE. Place the pasta pot back on the stove.
3. In blender or food processor, blend together the spinach, butter, garlic cloves, juice from half of the lemon that you sliced earlier, about ½ teaspoon of salt, and a few grinds of black pepper (or red pepper flakes).
4. Use a clean spoon to taste the sauce. Adjust for salt, lemon, and thinness (using pasta water) as needed. You want the sauce to be fairly loose, closer to salad dressing than alfredo.

Pour sauce into empty pasta pot, then add pasta. Toss to coat over medium heat for about 2 minutes. Use pasta water as needed to loosen stuck pasta. If desired, serve with a pile of Pecorino and a wedge of the remaining lemon half.

1. Pour sauce into the empty pasta pot and turn on the stove to medium heat.
2. Add the drained pasta and use tongs to toss the pasta in the sauce. If the noodles stick to the pot, use a little more of the reserved pasta water to loosen them.
3. Toss until sauce clings to noodles and all noodles are coated, approximately two minutes.
4. TURN OFF THE STOVE.
5. Shred your pasta cheese of choice to top and slice your second lemon half into wedges. Enjoy!

How To’s

1. How to make this clean up easier:
   • Follow original recipe instructions to use fresh spinach, which will then not require thawing and draining.
   • Use the same strainer to thaw the spinach and to drain the pasta, just rinse it in between. Re-use the garlic tongs to toss the pasta at the end.
2. How to use this best:
   • You can absolutely make this with fresh spinach, but the reason we typically do frozen is that doing so makes it really easy to always have the ingredients on hand. With spinach and butter in the freezer, garlic and pasta in the pantry, and basic seasonings in the spice rack, you can have an easy go-to option whose ingredients don’t perish quickly. So even two weeks after grocery day, you can still make a pasta that tastes like garlic butter but still has a good dose of vegetables!
   • This will keep for about a week in a sealed container in the fridge, making it great for meal prep.

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