Pasta with Green Beans and Creamy Sauce

For this dish it’s best to choose a short tubular pasta: penne, tortiglioni, pipe. Fusilli will work too, as their spiral surface holds the creamy bean sauce very well. Buy frozen green beans, a product available in any season that needs no special preparation, and a little fresh green basil. Don’t take the fattiest cream: 15-20% is perfect, and the dish will be lower in calories. Adding grated Parmesan to the sauce thickens it a little.

To prepare the creamy sauce, the green beans need to be cooked briefly. You don’t even have to thaw them for this. Tip the frozen beans into a small saucepan. Supermarkets most often sell bags of frozen vegetables weighing 400 g, and half a bag is enough for a dish for two. Cover the beans with water and bring to a boil. Cook for 3-4 mins, then drain in a colander and rinse with very cold water to keep the green color.

Set aside 2-3 tbsp of beans (26–38 g) to add to the finished sauce along with the pasta, so they stay whole. Transfer the rest of the beans back into the same saucepan they were cooked in. Add green basil leaves, keeping a little basil to garnish the pasta when serving. Pour the cream into the saucepan. Next, purée everything. Use a handheld immersion blender, since stand blenders usually do a poor job with small amounts of ingredients. Blend all the green vegetables with the cream until the sauce is smooth and no noticeable pieces are left.

Melt a piece of butter in a frying pan. When it has melted and starts to bubble, pour in the cream with the green beans and basil. Bring the sauce to a boil, then reduce the heat. Salt the sauce lightly to taste and add a pinch of ground nutmeg and white pepper. The sauce shouldn’t be heated for long, as it thickens very quickly. Important: taste it and add the spices the way you like.

While the creamy green bean sauce is cooking, boil the pasta. Bring the required amount of water to a boil in a large pot and salt it. Cook the pasta until al dente; the time is given on the package. Drain the pasta in a colander so the water runs off, then transfer it to the frying pan with the sauce. Add the grated Parmesan (or a similar cheese such as pecorino or grana padano) and the remaining whole green beans. Mix the pasta and sauce thoroughly.

Divide the pasta with creamy sauce and beans among serving plates. Garnish with fresh basil leaves. Serve the dish while the pasta is hot; it’s best not to reheat it. If you like, you can skip adding the Parmesan to the sauce when mixing it with the pasta and instead sprinkle the dish generously with cheese when serving.

For a more piquant flavor, you can add 1-2 cloves of garlic to the sauce, cooking them briefly along with the beans. To make the sauce very green, you can add fresh spinach together with the basil; it’s neutral in taste and aroma, but the color of the sauce will be very intense. For a thinner sauce, use more cream or even plain milk. Or save a cup of the pasta (100 g) cooking water and use it to thin the sauce. By the way, I once saw pasta sprinkled with a small amount of pine nuts when served, and it was both delicious and beautiful.