Savoy cabbage & pancetta farfalle
With mozzarella & herby pine nuts
20 mins
Not Too Tricky
serves 4
About the recipe
This is a corker of a dish from the mountainous area of northern Italy, pairing braised Savoy cabbage with best friends salty, smoky pancetta and oozy cheese. Tossed through farfalle pasta with golden pine nuts to finish, this is the perfect way to celebrate all parts of a Savoy cabbage.
Ingredients
olive oil
40g pine nuts
½ a bunch of fresh thyme (10g)
2 thick rashers of higher-welfare dry cured smoked streaky bacon or pancetta
1-2 cloves of garlic
1 small dried chilli or 1 pinch of dried chilli flakes
½ a large Savoy cabbage
300g dried farfalle
60g Parmesan cheese, plus extra to serve
1 x 125g ball of buffalo mozzarella
extra virgin olive oil
Top Tip
To make this veggie, swap the bacon for sliced chestnut mushrooms.
Method
- Heat a large non-stick frying pan over a medium-high heat with ½ a tablespoon of olive oil, then add the pine nuts and lightly toast for 1 minute. Pick in half of the thyme leaves and cook for another minute, or until the pine nuts are golden, tossing the pan occasionally. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.
- Return the pan to the heat. Finely slice and add the pancetta with ½ a tablespoon of olive oil and fry until the fat has rendered and the pancetta is lightly golden.
- Peel, finely slice and add the garlic, then crumble in the dried chilli and strip in the remaining thyme leaves. Season generously with black pepper.
- Click off the darker, tougher leaves from the cabbage, discarding any tough stalky bits, then roll up and finely slice. Add to the pan and cook for a few minutes, or until beginning to soften.
- Tear up the paler cabbage leaves and finely chop the stalk, then add to the pan with a good splash of boiling water. Season with sea salt, reduce the heat to medium, cover and cook for a further 10 minutes, or until tender.
- Cook the pasta in a large pan of boiling salted water, according to the packet instructions.
- Finely grate the Parmesan and chop the mozzarella into 1cm chunks.
- Drain the pasta, reserving a mugful of the cooking water, and toss with the cabbage.
- Remove the pan from the heat, add the Parmesan and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and toss well, adding splashes of the cooking water, if needed.
- Add the mozzarella, tossing for 30 seconds, or until stringy and oozy, before serving with a scattering of toasted pine nuts and an extra grating of Parmesan, if you like.
Recipe adapted from Penguin Modern Cookery Classic: The Return of the Naked Chef by Jamie Oliver, published by Penguin Random House © Jamie Oliver Enterprises Limited (2019 Penguin Modern Cookery Classic: The Return of the Naked Chef).
Use rosemary or oregano instead of thyme.
Serve this up without the pasta, as a delicious side to steak or your Sunday roast.
You can make up the braised cabbage part of the recipe the day before, storing it in the fridge until needed, then simply toss with the cooked pasta, until hot through.
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