Linguine with Arugula, Garlic and Parmesan

I published my first blog post this week. Sister Aisha at the church helped me type it up—I write by hand still, I cannot type the words as fast as they come through the pen, there is something about the pen that is connected to the same system as the wooden spoon, a physical instrument of making rather than a digital one—and she formatted it and helped me think about how it reads on a screen rather than on paper, which requires different considerations. She was patient with me. She is a very patient young woman with a grandmother in me that she is glad to assist.

The post is about the mac and cheese dream. About Marcus. About the 4 AM kitchen. About what it means to lose the thing that is most central to you and find it again through a dream. I wrote it plainly—no flourishes, no performance—and Sister Aisha said it made her cry, and she is twenty-five years old with a laptop and a social media degree and she is not the target audience I was thinking of, so if it made her cry it will probably do what it needs to do in the world. We shall see. I don't know what a blog post does exactly. I know what food does: it fills a hunger. If the writing does anything, I hope it fills a hunger too. The hunger to know you are not alone in your grief. The hunger to know the kitchen is still there. The hunger for someone to say: I know. I've been here. It gets different. Not better, exactly, but different. Different enough to keep going.

Bernice's Table had thirty-one people Tuesday. We are growing. I need more volunteers for the kitchen on the heavy prep days—right now it's eight women doing all of it and eight women can do a lot but thirty people eating fried chicken is a different project than twenty people eating fried chicken and the Tuesday dinners will be larger before they are smaller. I am recruiting. I am always recruiting. The church kitchen is an army that is always looking for soldiers.

The night the blog post went out, I did not want to cook anything complicated — I had poured what I had into the writing, and the kitchen that evening needed to be quiet and easy, something that came together without demanding too much of me. This linguine is what I made: garlic, greens, Parmesan, a little olive oil, the kind of pasta that does not ask for your whole self and still manages to feel like something. It is the kind of recipe I reach for when I have already given the heavy thing away and need to be fed simply in return.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 15 minutes | Total Time: 25 minutes | Servings: 4

Ingredients

12 oz linguine
3 tablespoons olive oil
4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
5 oz baby arugula (about 4 packed cups)
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan, plus more for serving
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more for pasta water
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/3 cup reserved pasta cooking water
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Instructions

Cook the pasta. Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil. Cook linguine according to package directions until al dente. Before draining, reserve 1/3 cup of the starchy cooking water. Drain and set aside.
Toast the garlic. While pasta cooks, heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add sliced garlic and red pepper flakes if using. Cook, stirring frequently, for 2 to 3 minutes until garlic is golden and fragrant. Do not let it burn.
Wilt the arugula. Add the arugula to the skillet in two or three batches, tossing with tongs as it wilts. Season with salt and pepper. This takes about 2 minutes total.
Combine. Add the drained linguine to the skillet along with the reserved pasta water and lemon juice. Toss everything together over medium-low heat for 1 to 2 minutes until the pasta is well coated and the liquid is mostly absorbed.
Finish with Parmesan. Remove from heat and stir in the grated Parmesan until it melts into a light, silky coating over the pasta. Taste and adjust salt and pepper as needed.
Serve. Divide among bowls and top with additional Parmesan. Serve immediately.

Nutrition (per serving)

Linguine with Arugula, Garlic and Parmesan — The Pasta I Made the Night After My First Blog Post Went Out