WI have to talk about lasagna sheets. I always have a box in the cupboard, even though I rarely put the time and effort into making a lasagna (at most twice a year). Unlike most other pastas, where the shape dictates what you do with it, lasagna is the most flexible because you can break it to your liking. Here I’ve used them to mimic fazzoletti, or handkerchief pasta, which is usually served with pesto. Here I used fava beans and arugula as the base for a kind of pesto and sliced it with toasted almonds, nutritional yeast and lemon.
Broken pasta with broad beans and arugula
You will need a blender or food processor. Nutritional yeast adds a deep, savory flavor and is widely available in grocery stores. To quickly thaw the fava beans, pour some boiling water over them, let them sit for a minute and drain. Most dried lasagna sheets are naturally vegan (but check this, as some contain egg).
Preparation 10 minutes
Cook 20 minutes
Serves 4
75 g slivered almonds
200 g frozen broad beansthawed, or about 600g fresh shelled beans
1 garlic clovepeeled
120 ml extra virgin olive oilplus a little more to finish
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
3 tbsp lemon juice (from 1-2 lemons)
100 grams of wild arugula
Fine sea salt
350 g dried lasagnaebroken in two (or in large shards)
Place a skillet over medium heat until hot, then add all the flaked almonds and cook, stirring every 30 seconds, for three to four minutes, until golden. Place them in a bowl to prevent them from cooking further.
Place the broad beans, garlic, oil, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, 75 g arugula, 50 g almonds and three quarters teaspoon salt in a food processor and pulse to a coarse pesto-like texture.
Bring two liters of water to a boil and then add two teaspoons of salt. Stir the water vigorously, then add the pasta and cook for about eight minutes, until cooked through but still with a little bite. Remove a mug of the cooking liquid from the pan and drain the pasta.
Return the drained pasta to the still hot pan, pour over the sauce and about 200ml reserved water and stir vigorously so that each piece of pasta is evenly coated with the sauce. Check the seasonings, adding a little more salt or extra pasta water for flavor and texture if needed: you want a loose sauce, but one that will stick to each piece of pasta.
Divide the pasta between plates or shallow bowls and place a small handful of the remaining 25g arugula in the center of each mound. Scatter over the remaining 25g almonds, drizzle each portion generously with olive oil and serve.
