Pasta with Bacony Collards & Cannellini Beans

Yield

Yield: 4 Servings

Ingredients

5 ounces (1 ½ cups) short dry pasta (orecchiette, penne or macaroni)
4 cups chicken or vegetable stock or water, divided
4 slices (6 oz) thick-cut bacon, cut into ½ -inch pieces
3 cloves garlic
1 bunch collard greens (See Note Below)
Carrot Tops from 1 bunch of carrots (See Note Below)
1 can (15.5 oz) can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
¼ to ½ tsp red pepper flakes
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 oz Parmesan or pecorino cheese, finely grated (about 1 cup), plus more to serve
1 Tbsp butter

Instructions

Put the pasta in a small bowl and cover with 1 ½ cups of chicken stock or water, stirring occasionally to make sure the pasta isn’t clumping together. Set aside to soak for at least 15 minutes.
Add the bacon to a medium Dutch oven along with 2 Tbsp of water. Place over medium heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until the fat melts out o the bacon and the bacon becomes brown and crisp, 12 to 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, smash, peel, and finely chop the garlic. Strip the collard leaves from the stems. Stack the leaves and cut lengthwise into four long sections. Stack the pieces and cut crosswise into ¼-inch thick strips. Strip the lacey greens from the coarse stems on the carrot tops. Finely chop the lacey greens and discard the stems. With the carrot tops and collards combined, you should have a total of about 6 cups of greens.
Using a slotted spoon, scoop the bacon from the Dutch oven and transfer to a plate, leaving the fat behind. Add the garlic and cook until tender and aromatic, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the red pepper flakes and cook until aromatic, about 30 seconds.
Add the collards and carrot tops, the remaining 2 ½ cups of chicken stock or water, and a big pinch of salt and black pepper. Increase the heat to high and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to maintain an active simmer. Add the beans and cook, partially covered, until the liquid has reduced to about 1 cup and the greens are tender and silky, approximately 35 to 45 minutes. Taste the greens and add more salt and black pepper if needed. (You want it to be very well seasoned at this point, so the liquid and greens can season the pasta.)
Add the pasta along with the soaking liquid and simmer, stirring constantly, for 3 to 5 minutes or until the pasta is al dente. Remove from heat, add the cheese, butter, and reserved bacon, and stir well to combine. Taste and adjust the seasoning to your liking with additional salt, pepper and/or red pepper flakes.
Divide the greens & beans creation among 4 bowls and garnish with more cheese if desired.

Notes

This recipe was sourced from Food52.com and was developed by Sohla El-Waylly. Sohla actually made a video of this recipe which you may view online!

Note from previous farm Chef Andrea: The beauty of this recipe is that it is very adaptable to other greens aside from or in combination with collard greens. The author of this recipe says “Use any hearty green here, like kale, escarole or carrot tops.” As long as the greens have a similar texture, they’ll cook similarly. You could also use more tender cooking greens in this recipe such as chard, spinach, nettles, radish tops, fennel tops, beet greens. These greens benefit from cooking to make them soft and silky, but they don’t need quite as long as hearty greens like collards. The author does not recommend mixing hearty greens with more tender greens as the tender greens will be overcooked by the time the hearty greens are ready. If you do want to mix greens, just give the hearty ones a head start and add the more tender ones a little later.

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