One of my favourite kitchen shortcuts? Harissa and cream cheese mixed to make a sauce. The cream cheese rounds out the heat from the harissa, and together they work perfectly with everything from beans to pasta – or, in today's case, both. Spring greens add welcome colour, and the whole lot is spiked with lemon at the end. It's one of my most-made pasta dishes.
Spaghetti with spring greens, butter beans and harissa
Prep: 10 min | Cook: 15 min | Serves: 4
- Flaky sea salt
- 360g spaghetti
- 1 medium head spring greens, trimmed and finely sliced
- 580g jar butter beans, or white beans, drained and rinsed
- 4 heaped tbsp cream cheese
- 3 level tbsp rose harissa
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 60g pine nuts, toasted
Bring a large pan of well-salted water to a boil, then cook the spaghetti for nine minutes, or according to the packet instructions, until al dente. Two minutes before the pasta is ready, add the spring greens and, if need be, top up the pan with extra boiling water.
Drain the pasta and greens, retaining a mugful of cooking water, then return them both to the pan and put it on a low heat. Add the beans, cream cheese, harissa and most of the lemon juice, and stir until everything is evenly coated in the sauce; add a splash or two of the reserved pasta water to loosen, if needed. Adjust the lemon juice and salt to taste (if the pasta water was well salted, you won't need to add very much), then stir again.
Serve in warmed bowls, topped with a scattering of toasted pine nuts. If you're not serving four, the excess will keep well in the fridge for the next day.
