Changed

A few weeks ago, a friend sent me the cutest photo of her sweet, pudgy-cheeked baby eating a bit of kale-sauce pasta. The baby was in a high chair, grinning before the wreckage of her dinner — green sauce on her face and hands, bits of pasta up to her elbows. Now that baby knows how to enjoy her food, I thought with admiration.

A bunch of just-boiled greens, still hot and dripping wet, puréed with a little fried garlic, grated cheese and olive oil becomes such a crowd pleaser when you toss it with pasta. You can even tinker with the framework: Use a lot of cheese, or none at all (try a heaped tablespoon of white miso if you want to make it vegan). Add chile flakes to the sizzling garlic, or drop a hunk of preserved lemon rind into the blender. I’ve thrown in arugula, mustard greens, chard and whole bunches of just-starting-to-wilt herbs, too.

The idea isn’t new, but when I learned it from the Portland chef Joshua McFadden, who uses lacinato kale, I was still really excited by its ease and adaptability. Kale sauce is now on regular rotation in my kitchen, year-round, in infinite variations.

Here are a few:

Breakfast bowls full of hot polenta + kale sauce + softly poached eggs

Big pot of white beans + kale sauce + zest of a whole lemon + chile oil

Baked casserole of layered lasagna sheets + kale sauce + mozzarella

You never know