With October comes a lineup of beautiful new seasonal vegetables. A favorite, and a dark horse of the kale and cabbage family is Cavolo Nero (otherwise known as black Tuscan kale) – a bit like the cool older brother to curly kale – more sophisticated and not quite so rough around the edges. Endlessly versatile it can be sauteed, thrown into soups, or as in this recipe, blended to create a velvety, bright green sauce. The obvious choice is to use this as a sauce for pasta or gnocchi, but you can pretty much slather it on/with anything with optimum results – sandwiches, as a sauce to accompany roasted or steamed vegetables, anything really that requires a creamy and full-flavored dressing. And since it keeps in the fridge for up to a week, throwing together a simple weeknight meal couldn’t be easier. And in complicated times like these, we think simple and nourishing is the way forward. When sautéing you may want to remove some of the thicker, fibrous parts of the starts that are hard to chew but are virtually unnoticeable when blended into a sauce.

Cavolo Nero and Walnut Sauce

Makes 1 3/4 cups (400 ml)  | Equipment : a blender or a food processor

Ingredients

8 Cavolo Nero stems, rinsed, stalks trimmed and roughly chopped
1 fresh garlic clove, green germ removed
1 1/2 tablespoons coarse sea salt
1/4 cup (60 g) walnuts
Zest of 1 organic lemon
1 tablespoon (about ½ lemon) freshly squeeze lemon juice
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt

Method

1. Place 3 quarts (3 l) water, the kosher salt and garlic clove in a medium-sized pot and bring to the boil. Add the Cavolo Nero then bring the water back to ta boil, and cook for 8 minutes.

2. Strain the garlic and Cavolo Nero and place in the blender, reserving ½ cup of the cooking liquid. (If using the sauce for pasta or gnocchi, keep the remaining cooking water to cook your pasta in).

3. Add the walnuts, lemon zest and juice, and the reserved cooking liquid (you may not need it all depending on how thick you want your sauce to be) and blend until smooth. With the motor running, pour the olive oil through the hole in the blender lid or through the food processor feeding tube. Taste for seasoning. Use immediately or store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week.

This is a Nourish the Planet recipe, part of a collaborative series by Patricia Wells and Emily Buchanan.
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