Bucatini with Lemon Cream Sauce and Roasted Kale

I’ve been thinking about fate a lot recently. Ever since that period in my life where I spent long hours poring over the words of Waiting for Godot and connecting with Beckett’s existential storylines I’ve always felt a certain hesitation to believe in that thing we call destiny. Instead I’ve opted for the viewpoint that the course of my life and the meaning derived from that comes directly from the decisions that I alone make or have made. But now, more than ever before, I find myself thinking that maybe things do just happen because they were meant to happen. I’m wondering if “right place, right time” and “it will happen when you least expect it” is a way to put meaning to a predetermined course.

It is without a doubt that my current readings have been influencing my thoughts. Many who know me are aware that I happen to be quite the Murakami fan and I’ve already quoted him at least once here before. I just finished reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and it has easily become my favorite of his books to date. The book also happens to touch on the subject of fate quite a bit. There is one part where a character remarks, “All these inexplicable events that have occurred in my life so far… it’s as though they were all ingeniously programmed from the start for the very purpose of bringing me here, where I am today… I feel as if my every move is being controlled by some kind of incredibly long arm that’s reaching out from somewhere far away, and that my life has been nothing more than a convenient passageway for all these things moving through it.” Almost throughout the entire novel the characters, deep in thought, observe their current state as the domino-effect outcome of many life events that have been carefully orchestrated by the cosmos.

I’ve by no means convinced myself of one philosophy or another and have for the time being mostly hopped aboard the “screw it, I don’t have time to think about this” train. Unfortunately this gives me no way to explain why I just so happened to have all but one ingredient for the very dish I was just so happening to be craving yesterday. But for now I’m okay with ignoring this question and just being happy that it made my weekend grocery shopping trip that much easier.

This may very well be my favorite pasta dish yet. The first time I made it, the many unconventional steps of the process felt so wrong. Like throwing half of a lemon – peel, seeds, and all – into a blender with a raw egg and heavy cream. Yeah, I could definitely say I’d never done that before. But before I knew it I had the easiest and most luscious and creamy sauce I’d ever seen before me. And wait, all I had to do was pour it over hot pasta and mix it with some roasted kale? It’s comforting without being cloying, great on its own, but also killer with any sort of seafood, and believe me, this is definitely one of those scenarios where “more than the sum of its parts” comes into play. Maybe the world planned for me to make this over the weekend, or maybe I just keep a well-stocked fridge. But once I was eating, I couldn’t have cared less.

Bucatini with Lemon Cream Sauce and Roasted Kale

Served 4-6

From Tara O’Brady’s Seven Spoons Cookbook

2 bunches of kale, cleaned, de-stemmed, and roughly torn into pieces

½ lemon

¼ cup olive oil plus extra for the kale

1 egg

½ cup heavy cream

1 cup shredded parmesan cheese

salt and pepper

1 lb. bucatini pasta (use linguine if you can’t find bucatini)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Divide the kale between 2 sheet trays. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Toss the leaves of kale with the oil until well coated. Roast in the oven for 15 minutes, tossing a few times in the process. Set aside once roasted.

While the kale cooks brings a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the bucatini, stir, and bring back to a boil. Cook until al dente according to package instructions.

Meanwhile, make the sauce. Add the lemon (yes the entire half of the lemon including the peel and seeds), the olive oil, raw egg, cream, and parmesan to a blender. Season with a pinch of salt and pepper each. Blend until thick, creamy, and smooth.

 When the pasta is done, set aside 1 cup of the pasta cooking water and then drain the pasta. Return the noodles to the pot with about a quarter of the pasta water. Pour the lemon sauce over the pasta while using tongs to toss and mix the noodles. Alternate this with splashes of the cooking water to thin out the sauce some , as needed. Add in the kale and mix to combine. Taste and add salt if necessary. Serve with cracked pepper and a generous amount of grated parmesan.