cooking.nytimes.com

Pasta With Caramelized Cabbage, Anchovies and Bread Crumbs

5.0(1904)

This dish is hearty and robust, with a savory backbone from the anchovies, sage and pecorino, as well as a bite from the red chile flakes. (A note to anchovy haters: add them anyway. They dissolve into the sauce and add complexity without any fishiness.) Although I used regular pasta, I think farro pasta or whole-wheat pasta would also have stood up to the brawny flavors of the dish. Or, if you wanted to take this in a meatier direction, you could substitute bacon for anchovies, reducing the olive oil and using some of the bacon fat to cook the cabbage. Pork products and cabbage are a match made in heaven, or at least in much of Eastern Europe.

by Melissa Clark

Open original recipe

ItalianDinner, Weeknight, Main Course

Servings

(4–6)

Total time

40 min

Calories / serving

506 kcal

Ingredients (12)

serves

5 garlic cloves, peeled and crushedgarlic
2 tablespoons unsalted butterbutter
4 anchovy fillets
1/2 cup coarse bread crumbsbread-crumbs
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh sagesage
1/4 teaspoon black pepper, plus more, to taste
Kosher salt, to tastesalt
1 pound dry penne
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oilextra-virgin-olive-oil
1/2 teaspoon red chile flakes
8 cups shredded cabbagecabbage
2/3 cup grated pecorino or Parmesan.parmesan

Instructions (3 steps)

01Mince one garlic clove. Melt the butter in a small skillet over medium heat. Add the anchovies and cook, mashing with a spatula, until they dissolve into the butter. Stir in the minced garlic and cook until fragrant. Stir in the bread crumbs and sage and cook until bread is golden brown, about 2 minutes. Season with black pepper.
02Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook according to package instructions until barely al dente. Drain.

While the pasta cooks, heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the remaining garlic and cook until golden brown. Add the chile and cook until fragrant. Stir in the cabbage and cook, stirring occasionally, until it begins to caramelize, about 10 minutes. Toss in the pasta and bread-crumb mixture and heat through, then quickly toss in the cheese and remove from heat. Season with salt and more pepper, if desired, and serve immediately.

Pantry check

No pantry set. Add ingredients on the Pantry page to see what you have for this recipe.

Data quality

servings.value✓

times.totalMinutes✓

nutrition.calories✓

recipeCuisine✓

recipeCategory✓

rating✓

description✓

image (URL only)✓

Rich recipe — supports nutrition-aware planning.