Kale Pesto Pasta — When the Greens Keep Talking After the Story Ends

June, and the summer begins with the Lowcountry's annual declaration of heat — the air thick, the humidity insistent, the morning walk to the library a daily baptism in the climate that made this food and this culture and this particular kind of resilience that you develop when you live in a place that is trying to melt you every day from June to September.

I have been writing the cookbook every morning — Chapter Five now, which is about Mama's collard greens, which is about patience (the greens cook for two hours), which is about tradition (the pot likker is served in a cup, drunk like broth, because the pot likker is where the vitamins live and Mama considers wasting pot likker a sin comparable to wasting talent), which is about the ham hock that connects the greens to the pig that connects the pig to the farm that connects the farm to the land that connects the land to the history that connects the history to the food that connects the food to me, standing at the stove, stirring, writing, connecting.

Carrie is home for the summer — home from Emory, home in her room that she has reclaimed with the possessive energy of a girl who has been in a dorm for a year and who considers her own room a luxury that college has taught her to appreciate. She is working at the library again — my system, a different branch — and the working is both employment and education, and the education is in the Dewey Decimal System, which Carrie still finds "obsessively satisfying."

James called from Columbia. He is preparing for law school — summer reading, apartment furnishing, the logistical assembly of a life that will begin in August and that will consume him for three years. He mentioned Elise. He mentioned her apartment, which is near his apartment, which is not coincidental, and the not-coincidental is the planning of two people who are building proximity because proximity is the precondition of the life they are beginning to imagine together.

I made Mama's collard greens — Chapter Five's recipe, two hours of simmering, the ham hock and the vinegar and the patience. The greens were dark and tender and the pot likker was served in a cup and Mama drank it and said nothing, because the drinking was the saying, and the saying was the silence, and the silence was complete.

Chapter Five exhausted me in the best possible way — two hours of simmering, Mama at the table, the silence that meant everything said. When the writing is done and the collards are gone and the pot likker cup is empty, I still need to feed the house, and Carrie is home and hungry and not interested in leftovers. Kale is not collard greens, but it is kin — dark and honest and a little bitter in the way that things worth eating often are — and this pasta comes together in the time it takes to boil water, which felt, after that long slow morning at the stove, like a small and welcome mercy.

Kale Pesto Pasta

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 20 minutes | Total Time: 35 minutes | Servings: 4

Ingredients

• 12 oz linguine or spaghetti
• 3 cups curly kale, stems removed, leaves roughly torn
• 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, packed
• 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving
• 1/4 cup toasted walnuts or pine nuts
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled
• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more for pasta water
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
• 1/2 cup reserved pasta cooking water

Instructions

1. Cook the pasta. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook pasta according to package directions until al dente. Before draining, reserve 1/2 cup of the starchy cooking water. Drain and set aside.
2. Blanch the kale. While pasta cooks, drop the torn kale into the boiling pasta water for the last 60 seconds of cooking, or blanch separately in boiling water for 1 minute. Remove with a slotted spoon and squeeze out as much water as possible. This softens the raw bite and brightens the color.
3. Make the pesto. Add the blanched kale, basil, Parmesan, walnuts, and garlic to a food processor. Pulse several times to rough-chop. With the machine running, stream in the olive oil until the pesto is smooth but still has some texture. Add lemon juice, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. Pulse to combine and taste for seasoning.
4. Toss and finish. Return the drained pasta to the pot over low heat. Spoon in the kale pesto and toss to coat, adding reserved pasta water a splash at a time until the sauce clings and the pasta is glossy. Remove from heat.
5. Serve. Divide among bowls and finish with extra Parmesan and a drizzle of olive oil. Serve immediately while warm.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 490 | Protein: 15g | Fat: 24g | Carbs: 56g | Fiber: 4g | Sodium: 310mg