Recipe: Karen Martini Makes Aglio e Olio Even Better With Greens and Brilliant Burrata

When Karen Martini released her 1000-recipe magnum opus, Cook, it was instantly hailed as a modern-day Cook’s Companion. Four years on, the celebrated Melbourne restaurateur, cookbook author and TV presenter is back with two more kitchen counter staples: Cook: Green and Cook: Sweet.

The former is a considered edit of more than 80 vegetable-forward dishes spanning throw-together salads, nourishing soups, zingy dips and show-stopping sides. It takes the bold, unfussy cooking style Martini refined at Melbourne Wine Room and Sydney’s Icebergs and brings it straight to your crisper. Best of all, most recipes are budget-friendly, particularly if you’re cooking with seasonal produce.

Here, Martini reimagines the Neapolitan classic aglio e olio. Where traditionalists stop at oil and garlic, she adds a verdant hit of silverbeet, spinach and parsley, which is blitzed with toasted garlic oil into a silky sauce that clings to every curve of the pasta – paccheri, penne or orecchiette all work well. “Be sure to use a high-speed blender or Thermomix to make this sauce successfully,” Martini advises.

This dish is sophisticated enough for a dinner party and easy enough for a weeknight. If you’re going down the former route, the torn burrata and oozy stracciatella on top really makes it sing.

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Green aglio e olio by Karen Martini

Serves 4–6
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

230ml extra-virgin olive oil
4 garlic cloves, peeled and halved
1 red bird’s eye chilli, sliced into rings
200g silverbeet (Swiss chard) or cavolo nero, without stalks, torn into small pieces
150g baby English spinach
½ bunch of flat-leaf (Italian) parsley, leaves picked
120g Parmigiano-Reggiano, super finely grated, plus extra to serve
500g dried short pasta, such as paccheri, penne or orecchiette
Burrata or stracciatella, torn, to serve
Flaked salt and freshly ground black pepper, to season

Method

Add the oil and garlic to a small saucepan over a medium heat and cook until golden, about 6 minutes. Be careful not to burn; you want a dark toasty flavour. Take off the heat, then add the chilli.

Cook the silverbeet, spinach and parsley in a saucepan of boiling salted water for 3½ minutes, then drain and press most of the liquid out while still hot. Finely chop, then add to a high-speed blender or Thermomix. Blitz briefly, then add the very hot garlic-chilli-oil mixture with a few tablespoons of water and blitz, adding a little more water if needed to make a smooth sauce. Add the Parmigiano-Reggiano to the blender and blitz again until smooth, then season heavily with salt and pepper.

Cook the pasta in boiling salted water according to the packet instructions, until al dente. Drain, reserving a little of the pasta water. Put the pasta back in the pot with a splash of the reserved pasta water and add the green sauce. Toss until the sauce clings to the pasta. Sprinkle with extra parmesan and serve immediately with burrata or stracciatella on top.

For extra crunch, sprinkle on some toasted walnuts, toasted pine nuts, or some crispy flash-fried cavolo nero leaves to finish.

This is an edited extract from Cook: Green by Karen Martini published by Hardie Grant Books on May 1, 2026. Photography by Armelle Habib.