Recipe | Brothy veg & rigatoni pasta

— Recipe by Joe Woodhouse

I love this way of eating pasta, which is essentially a minestrone of sorts. Use the recipe as a template and swap in or out ingredients throughout the seasons, or to your tastes. Oyster mushrooms work a treat, as do any leafy greens. Brussels tops or chard are great. Equally you don’t have to substitute; in this case more is more. Just up the stock and tinned tomato if adding lots more veg. Also, a splash of cider or white wine in with the stock doesn’t go amiss.

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Serves 4

40 mins

Veg

Ingredients

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 carrot, diced

1 red onion, roughly diced

1 leek, trimmed, cleaned, white part finely sliced, greens shredded

200g (7oz) cavolo nero or kale, leaves stripped from stalks, stalks finely sliced

250g (9oz) button mushrooms, sliced

500ml (generous 2 cups) vegetable stock

1 x 350g (12oz) jar or 400g (14oz) tin chickpeas (garbanzo beans)

1 x 400g (14oz) tin plum tomatoes

320g (11oz) rigatoni

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Grated (shredded) hard sheeps’ cheese or Parmesan, to serve

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Method

Heat the oil in a good-sized saucepan. Add the carrot and onion with a good pinch of salt and cook for 6–8 minutes until beginning to soften. Add the leeks, cavolo stalks and mushrooms. Stir well to incorporate and cook for a further 3–5 minutes. Add the stock, chickpeas with their juice and the tomatoes. Crush up the tomatoes a little and bring to a simmer. Cook for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile par-cook your pasta – 3–4 minutes should do. Reserve some pasta water. Drain and add to the veg broth along with the cavolo leaves torn a little. Stir to wilt the leaves.

Add pasta water as needed to loosen the mix. Check the seasoning and add black pepper at this stage. Serve with grated cheese.

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Other recipes from Pasta for the People — 

Broccoli, garlic & chilli radiatori

Mushroom & blue cheese Gigli