Recipe: Kale, Risoni and Mushroom Pasta Bake With Creamy Burrata

Looking for a creamy, comforting dinner that doesn’t take all night to cook? This one’s got your name on it.

“This pasta-bake-esque meal is perfect for something special on a busy night,” writes Clare Scrine in The Shared Kitchen. “It basically only involves two steps: first, make the sauce and combine it with everything else; second, bake the whole dish until the risoni is cooked through.”

What emerges is a vibrant green pasta bake – vaguely pesto-scented thanks to kale, basil and lemon – that's laced with golden mushrooms, melting burrata and a rich, silky sauce. Scrine adds a splash of burrata whey for extra depth, but stock or water works too. And if you can’t find cavolo nero, curly kale is a perfectly good substitute.

Creamy cavolo nero, risoni and mushroom bake

Serves 6-8

Ingredients

1 bunch of cavolo nero, leaves picked and roughly shredded
1 bunch of basil, leaves picked, plus extra to serve
4 garlic cloves, peeled
250ml (1 cup) pouring cream
Salt and pepper
Juice of 1 lemon (about 2 tbsp)
750ml–1L (3–4 cups) vegetable stock
500g risoni
300g button mushrooms, thinly sliced
2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
100g (1 cup) grated parmesan
250g burrata, plus 125ml (½ cup) of its soaking liquid (whey)
Lemon wedges, to serve

Method

Preheat the oven to 220°C fan-forced.

Place the cavolo nero, basil, garlic and three-quarters of the cream in a high-powered blender and blitz to a green puree. Generously season with salt and pepper. Depending on the size and power of your blender, you might need to do this in two batches.

Pour the mixture into a 30cm x 20cm baking dish (or a 25cm round dish), add the lemon juice and 750ml (3 cups) of the stock and gently whisk to combine. Tip in the risoni and gently mix to spread the pasta evenly through the liquid. Scatter the mushroom slices on top, spreading them as much as you can, but do not mix them into the liquid. Drizzle over the olive oil and sprinkle with some salt and pepper.

Transfer the dish to the oven and bake for 20 minutes, until the mushroom is deep golden brown and the dish is bubbling. Remove the dish from the oven, scatter over the parmesan, then gently stir the mushrooms and cheese through the risoni. Add the burrata whey and stir it through to combine. At this point taste the mixture and adjust the seasoning if necessary. If the risoni is still undercooked and the liquid has evaporated, add the remaining stock.

Return the bake to the oven for a final 5–10 minutes, until the pasta is just cooked. Tear up the burrata and place it evenly over the pasta bake, nestling some pieces in the risoni. Right before serving, spoon over the reserved cream, scatter with a few basil leaves and drizzle with a little extra olive oil.

Serve with lemon wedges.

Images and text extracted from The Shared Kitchen by Clare Scrine, published by Smith Street Books in 2022 ($45.00). Photography by Yaseera Moosa.

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