Rapini Linguine with Cambozola and Walnuts

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Bitter greens are among my favorite things to eat and cook with. They are versatile, toothsome, and bring contrast to every dish. When I was a child, it was quite the opposite. I suppose there’s nothing noteworthy about a kid turning their nose up at anything bitter. It’s part of biology after all. Our aversion to bitterness at a young age is an evolutionary feature; it supposedly keeps us from ingesting poisons. We are drawn to sweetness because it usually indicates a high-calorie count – something we need when growing. But we tend to get over this as we enter adolescence and that was certainly the case with me. I don’t precisely remember when rapini captured my attention but it has been my ride-or-die for at least a decade. And today’s Rapini Linguine is my love letter to the green. So let’s get romantic and make this beauty.

Before we launch into making this Rapini Linguine, let’s talk about what it is. This dish features tender strands of linguine, dressed in a sauce of pureed rapini leaves, garlic, and lemon juice. The pasta is topped with sautéed rapini stalks, creamy chunks of cambozola cheese, and chopped walnuts. This dish is bitter, nutty, sharp, and just a little bit sweet. It truly has it all and its name rhymes, which is fun. What more could you want from a dish?

The first thing we’re going to do is separate the rapini leaves from the stalks. It will look like you’re prepping enough rapini to feed a green-loving army, but I promise you’re not. Rapini leaves, like spinach, cook down a lot. Once the greens are separated, place a pot of water over high heat. Once the water comes to a boil, plunge the leaves into the water. Continue to cook them until they wilt. Pluck the leaves out of the water and plunge them into an ice bath to stop the cooking process. Transfer the rapini leaves to a blender. Add two peeled cloves of garlic, salt, and the juice of one lemon. Blitz everything together on high until the mixture is very smooth. Transfer the puree to a bowl and set it aside.

Next, we’re going to pour some oil into a large skillet. Once the oil is shimmering, add fennel seeds, crushed red pepper flakes, and thinly sliced garlic. Sauté until the seeds begin to pop and the garlic is golden. Strain the oil into a bowl. Set the fennel seeds, pepper flakes, and garlic aside. Now, take that gorgeously flavored oil and pour it back into the skillet. Add some thinly sliced shallots and a pinch of salt. Sauté the shallots until just translucent, then add the rapini stalks. The stalks should be coarsely chopped. This is a low-key meal, there’s no need to bring any serious knife skills into this.

While the rapini does its thing, cook the linguine until al dente. Once the pasta is good to go, deglaze the pan with a splash of dry vermouth and add in the pasta. Pour in the rapini puree and the fennel seeds, crushed red pepper flakes, and garlic you fried earlier. Toss to coat the pasta in the sauce. Pile the pasta onto plates and garnish with chunks of creamy gorgonzola and finely chopped walnuts.

A quick note about the cambozola. If you’re not a blue cheese fan, this cheese is actually for you. I know I said something similar about Gorgonzola. But I really do mean it about the cambozola. Cambozola is more or less a hybrid of camembert and gorgonzola cheese. Specifically, it is a combination of Penicillium camemberti and Penicillium roqueforti mold, which is used to make gorgonzola, roquefort, and stilton. The result is a very mild cheese with a rich, creamy texture similar to triple cream brie. It is not overly abrasive in flavor and it melts readily on the tongue – truly, a cheese for the people. So even if you’re on the fence about blue cheese, chances are you will like cambozola. Unless, of course, you don’t like soft cheeses, I suppose.

With the blue cheese elephant in the room out of the way, I think we’ve hit all the important bits about this very off-the-cuff meal. So that’s everything you need to know about this Rapini Linguine with Cambozola and Walnuts. A full-flavored bowl of pasta that is a joy to eat and a cinch to pull off.

Enjoy!