Why haven’t I tried this technique sooner? I always have an abundance of beets, as these hardy little taproots grow particularly well in our clay-rich soil. Usually, I pickle them, and we enjoy them all year, particularly on sandwiches.

I just got a new cookbook called Ruffage by Abra Berens, and I’m appreciating her vegetable expertise and simple ideas for delicious preparations. This dish was inspired by her suggestion to use blended roasted beets as a pasta sauce with golden raisins and poppy seeds. That particular combination doesn’t sound thrilling to me, but I was overjoyed when I experimented with the basic formula, adding parsley and chèvre for a more savory noodle dish.

I have a particularly hardy row of parsley in my garden from seeds I must have planted at least three years ago. We had a mild winter this year, so it has been thriving for months. I spent most of this Spring cutting it back and using as much as I could, making parsley pesto, tabbouleh, and a yummy white bean salad with marinated garlic, but it still got ahead of me, and now I’ve left it to flower for the bees.

In any case, this pasta made great use of both spring beets and an abundance of parsley. And it was so simple.

Ingredients

1 lb pasta (I used brown rice macaroni noodles, but any small pasta would work well)

2 roasted beets

juice of 1 lemon

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup heavy cream or half and half

1 bunch parsley, chopped

1 cup chèvre or feta

Directions

  1. Cook pasta until al dente. Drain, reserving 1 cup pasta water.
  2. In a food processor, blend the beets with lemon juice, olive oil, and cream until very smooth. Add salt & pepper to taste. Toss with cooked pasta, adding pasta water as needed.
  3. Plate and serve topped with parsley and crumbled chèvre or feta.