This dish is not only beautiful to see, but also healthy and delicious. Like many fruits, red cabbage contains the water soluble anthocyanin. You don’t need to remember the name, just know that anthocyanins are magic!!!! Add a bit of lemon juice (acid) and turns a more pink-ish color. Add some baking soda (alkaline) and it will turn a greenish -shade -of -Blue. So, literally you could make this pasta for a gender revealing party, baby shower, or just because is soooo “stinkin’ cute”!
The steps to execute this recipes are not complicated, just a bit laborious. In the end, you will be rewarded by an amazing dish, though.
Vegan for the win, and you won’t even feel it. Such decadent presentation and a rich garlic flavor freshened by herbs, will really take your mind off from the fact that you ARE eating cabbage 🙂
RED CABBAGE PESTO :
Makes about 2 Cup
450 g red cabbage, core removed. (about 1/2 of a small head of cabbage)
90 g (1/3 C) Porto or good Red Wine
2 T vegetable oil plus more for the Pesto if you like (I used Avocado oil)
Juice of 1 lemon
2 T Pine nuts Plus extra for garnish
Extra Vergin Olive Oil as needed
Salt as needed
1 bunch of parsley, stems removed
4 cloves of garlic, or more to taste
200 g Spaghettoni (about 1/2 lb of thick Spaghetti)
DIRECTIONS:
Step 1:
Heat a Sous vide water oven to 203F.
Meanwhile: slice the cabbage very thinly. Place in a sous vide bag with 1 clove of garlic, the wine and 2 vegetable oil. Seal the bag, and cook Sous Vide for 90 minutes.
Step 2:
Remove the cabbage from the Sous Vide and let it cool enough so you can handle it. (About 30 min)
Transfer the cabbage and all the ingredients in the bag to a Vitamix blender Jar. Chop. Add one more garlic clove and some lemon juice. You will see the color change. Stop when you have reached the color you want. With the motor running, add enough vegetable oil or olive oil to create a cream. Taste for salt. Set aside.
Step 3:
In the same Vitamix Blender Jar place the roughly chopped parsley, the remaining garlic, a pinch of salt, some of remaining lemon juice.(You can add more later if needed) Chop, and with the engine running add the extra vergin olive oil until you reach the desired consistency. I wanted a mayo-consistency cream, but one could go even thinner.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil, salt it and add the Spaghettoni. Set a timer for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, place 1 C of the Red Cabbage cream in a large saucepan with a bit of Vegetable oil. Warm it up. After 5 minutes, using tongs, remove the pasta from the water and transfer it into the saucepan with the red cabbage cream. Add also 1 C of the pasta water. Stirring gently, cook the pasta into the sauce, add more pasta water if needed. You are cooking the pasta like you would cook a Risotto. Heat and Friction are your friends. Cook another 7 minutes or so over medium heat (do not let it stick to the bottom) until the pasta is cooked and is made “one” with the sauce. Add non dairy cream if you like. Taste for salt and white pepper.
Serve the pasta with the Persillade (Parsley sauce) and if you like
Nutritional Yeast, with additional toasted Pine Nuts on top.
For the non Vegan version, Pecorino cheese can be used to garnish or heavy cream.
Enjoy!!
