Herbie Likes Spaghetti: Irish-Italian Deliciousness for St. Patrick's Day: Spaghetti with Cabbage and Speck

Well it's that time of year - St. Patrick's Day is almost here. And while the food blogosphere is filling up with all things green and alcoholic, we're going to provide you with sustenance so that you can handle all the libations!

Bryan is Italian-Irish, and as such, we're bringing you some Irish inspired Italian meals (or are they Italian inspired Irish meals?) all week long. Today we'll start you off with this delicious spaghetti tossed with cabbage and speck. For those of you who aren't familiar with speck, it's smoked prosciutto. So, it does have that smoky flavor to it, similar to what you'd get with a smoked salmon, but instead of the fishy aftertaste, you get a bacon-y aftertaste. Does it get any better than that?

To make this even more appealing, the whole thing comes together very quickly, and is really easy to do. The limited ingredients make it very affordable as well. Dig in and enjoy as the "primi" for your St. Patrick's Day feast!

Making the Dish

What You'll Need
1/2 head cabbage, cored and chopped into thin ribbons
2 tbsp olive oil
2 oz speck (or prosciutto or cooked bacon if you can't find speck), cut into julienne
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 tsp chile flakes
1/4 cup grated pecorino romano cheese
1/3 lb spaghetti
salt and pepper to taste

Bring a large pot to boil and salt lightly. When it starts to boil, add in the cut up cabbage to the water and cook for 3 - 5 minutes, until the cabbage starts to soften.

While the cabbage is cooking, heat the olive oil in a non-stick pan over medium heat. Add in the speck and cook until it becomes nice and crispy - about 7 minutes. After about 3 minutes, add in the garlic and chile flakes and stir until the garlic becomes fragrant.

When soft, remove it from the water with tongs or a slotted spoon, and place it into a colander. Rinse with cool water.

Shake the cabbage to get the excess water off and then throw it into the pan with the speck and garlic. Stir together, getting it entirely coated. Season with a grind or two of fresh black pepper, and then remove from heat.

Bring the cabbage water back to a boil and cook the spaghetti until 1 minute shy of the package directions. With two minutes remaining, ladle some of the cooking water into the pan with the cabbage and speck and bring that pan back up to heat.

Add the spaghetti to the pan with the cabbage and speck. Add in the pecorino romano cheese, and toss everything to combine over medium heat. Continue to stir and fold in the cheese and liquid until most of the liquid has been absorbed by the pasta.

Serve, garnished with extra pecorino if desired.

The Result
This is a truly simple, truly tasty, Irish-Italian meal. The cabbage + speck combination gives you an almost corn beef & cabbage sort of flavor profile (almost!), yet the smoothness of the melted cheese in the sauce coating the pasta makes it distinctly Italian.

There are only a few better ways to blend these two cultures, and if you come back Wednesday & Friday this week, we'll show you some other options that might just be even better!