Fridge greens fusilli recipe

Go to your fridge and pull out those unused greens and get them involved in this warm, delicious, super-green pasta dish. You don’t need to be meatfree to love how simple and delicious this is – that’s why it’s a fan favourite.

Timings

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

• 3 garlic cloves, not peeled

• 340g fusilli or pasta shells

• 280g greens (e.g. rocket, spinach and/or kale, fresh or frozen, including the stems)

• handful of fresh basil, including the stems

• handful of fresh parsley, including the stems

• 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

• 30g parmesan, grated, plus more to serve

• 2 tbsp nutritional yeast

• ½ tsp salt

• ¼ tsp black pepper

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Put the garlic on a baking sheet and bake for 8 minutes until soft and lightly brown. Remove the skins; set aside.

2. Meanwhile, bring a large pan of salted water to the boil, add the pasta and cook according to the packet instructions. For the last 2 minutes of cooking the pasta, add the greens to the boiling water and cook until soft.

3. Using tongs, carefully lift out the veg and transfer to a blender. Add the roasted garlic, the herbs, olive oil, parmesan, nutritional yeast, salt and black pepper. Blend until super-smooth and creamy.

4. Drain the pasta, reserving a few tablespoons of the cooking water.

5. Return the pasta to its pan along with the bright green sauce. If needed, loosen with a splash of the reserved cooking water, and stir to combine.

6. Serve the pasta in bowls, sprinkled with more grated parmesan.

Recipe from You Can Cook This! by Max La Manna (Ebury Press, £22)