Browned Butter Bucatini with Charred Cabbage

What is it about browned butter?! It makes everyone better. It takes on an earthier, nuttier flavor that pairs really well with the nuts that are tossed with this pasta. That pairing should have been obvious, but it wasn’t to me, nor was the cabbage in the pasta but, man, did I like how that worked. I followed this recipe and absolutely loved the results.

Heat oil in a pan and add one small green cabbage (that’s been halved, cored, and thinly sliced). Let the cabbage soften – you’ll need to continuously stir it around the pan – and cook until it starts getting browned. I found that this took a while, like 30 minutes, which was a bit longer than I anticipated when I set out to make a quick weeknight meal for a hungry toddler. As long as you know that going in, it’s fine; it doesn’t require much work, just time. When it’s about halfway done, bring a large pot of water to a boil and season liberally with salt. Back to your cabbage, add a bunch of pepper, set the it aside in your serving bowl, and wipe out the skillet. Now add bucatini to the boiling water and cook for 1 minute less than the package instructs. Drain the pasta but save some of the pasta water. Now that your skillet is free of cabbage, add 8 tbsp butter and 1/2 c. chopped salted pecans and cook – again, lots of stirring – until the butter browns and smells nutty (about 3 minutes). Add q c. of pasta water, the cabbage, and the bucatini and toss it all. Simmer it like that for a few minutes, allowing the butter/pasta water sauce to thicken. Add 1 c. grated parm and a handful of chopped parsley and stir quickly so the now-cheesy sauce coats the pasta. Add more pasta water if needed. Add more parm to the top when serving if you’d like (you would like).

Yes there’s cheese, but this doesn’t feel like a cheese sauce, likely because it’s made with butter and not cream. It feels like a completely different, lighter dish. Greens are my usual toss-in for pasta, but cabbage took it to a different place, one I’m not mad about. Not as much nutritional value but, well, that’s not what this was about in the first place.