Pasta and arugula, a perfect pairing for a flavorful first course that is prepared in just a few minutes and will win over all diners, as the arugula will be blended and thus well appreciated even by the little ones.
The arugula pasta dressing includes garlic, oil, and chili pepper, thus making it a lively dish enriched by melting fontina cheese, with which the pasta is sautéed in the pan.
To prepare the arugula pasta, I prefer to use fresh pasta, and I especially find that this dressing goes well with orecchiette, but you can use gnocchetti, strozzapreti, mezze maniche, and all those types of pasta that embrace the dressing well even inside.
Pasta with arugula is a dish that tastes of summer, sunny days, and terrace lunches, but with the ease of finding arugula in supermarkets, it is a dish that adapts to every season of the year. The slightly bitter flavor of the arugula makes the dish even more lively and is well balanced by the sweetness of the fontina melted in the pan, which is why I recommend serving it hot. However, I can assure you that if you manage to make a little extra, it is consumed well even at room temperature, and you could have fun serving it in small portions among the appetizers. The slightly spicy flavor pairs well with cocktails like the Hugo Spritz.
Many are the first courses that lovingly embrace vegetables, so I also remind you of other recipes
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Economical
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 4
- Cooking methods: Stove
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Spring, Summer, and Autumn
- Energy 399.15 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 26.73 (g) of which sugars 2.38 (g)
- Proteins 20.61 (g)
- Fat 23.67 (g) of which saturated 11.53 (g)of which unsaturated 6.80 (g)
- Fibers 0.51 (g)
- Sodium 1,051.81 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 200 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ingredients
- 7 oz arugula
- 1 1/2 quart water
- 4 g coarse salt
- 7 oz fontina cheese
- 1 oz grated Parmesan
- 2 cloves garlic (medium)
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- to taste salt
- to taste chili pepper
- 14 oz fresh pasta (orecchiette or similar)
Tools
For cooking pasta and arugula, I recommend a large pot for water and a 10-inch diameter pan with high sides to sauté the pasta.
- 1 Cutting board
- 1 Knife
- 1 Pot
- 1 Pan
Preparation
Bring the water to a boil with the coarse salt, and when it boils, cook the arugula for a maximum of 5 minutes. Drain it by lifting it from the cooking water with a slotted spoon; do not discard the cooking water as it will be the same where you will boil the pasta in a few minutes.
While the arugula is cooking, in the pan where you will later sauté the pasta, fry the garlic and chili pepper with the oil. When the garlic is golden, sauté the arugula in the pan over high heat for about two minutes and adjust the taste with fine salt.
Pour the pasta into the boiling water and cook it for the minutes indicated on the package for al dente cooking.
While the pasta is cooking, blend the sautéed arugula with all its ingredients you find in the pan using a mixer. Blend everything well and put it back in the pan off the heat to prevent it from drying further.
During the various steps, prepare all the fontina cheese required by the recipe into cubes ready to be poured into the pan when sautéing the pasta.
When the pasta is al dente, bring the pan with the blended arugula back to the heat, add the drained pasta but always with a little cooking liquid, add the fontina cheese cubes, the grated Parmesan, and sauté everything until the fontina melts well and the dressing becomes homogeneous and covers all the pasta.
Now all that remains is to enjoy this delicious dish.
NOTES
To optimally sauté the pasta, my advice is always not to drain the pasta by pouring the cooking water into the sink but to lift the pasta from the pot with a slotted spoon and bring it directly to the pan where you need to sauté it.
You can see these steps well in the various videos of carbonara pasta that I made.
If you liked the recipe or if you have any questions, feel free to comment here or on social media Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and X.
