Green Cheesy Pasta (or Rice)

I have been making Green Cheesy Pasta/Rice ever since my now adult kids were little.  Like many kids, they were wary of vegetables but loved pesto.

One teatime I didn't have ingredients for my usual Watercress Pesto, so had to improvise with chard.  A suspiciously toddler poked the green pasta and asked what it was. I simply said it was green, cheesy, pasta.  She loved it, and the name stuck.  You can also make Green Cheesy Pasta with chard, spinach, kale, beetroot tops

Serves 2 as a main dish

200g dried (wholemeal) pasta
200g large leaf spinach, chard, kale, beetroot tops
50g mature cheddar or parmesan, grated
1 small clove of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
Extra virgin olive oil

Bring a large pan of lightly salted water to the boil.  Add the pasta and about a teaspoon of olive oil.  Stir the pasta around, cover, and bring back to the boil.

Once the pasta is boiling again, poke in the greens.  You need large leaved greens so you can fish them out again!  Crack the lid of the pan open and boil for 5 minutes, then fish the greens out and leave to cool in a pasta bowl.  Continue cooking the pasta for the remaining cooking time.

When the pasta is cooked, reserve about half a mug of the cooking water, and drain.  Toss the hot pasta in 1-2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. 

Place the cooled green is a blender cup, stripping out the tough stems if using kale.  Add the cheese, garlic, 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, a pinch of salt, and liquidise to the consistency of double cream, adding a little reserved pasta water if needed. 

Scrape all the sauce onto the pasta and mix thoroughly, again adding more water if you want a looser sauce.

This sauce works well with cooked rice, sticking the rice grains together, and making it easy for toddlers to eat.

The cheese can be replaced with 30g cashew nuts (soaked in hot water before liquidising) if preferred.

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