Lemon Rapini Pasta
on Mar 29, 2025
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Ready in 20 minutes, this lemon rapini pasta is a fast and simple vegetarian dinner recipe that’s perfect for busy weeknights. Besides the rapini, it has cannellini beans, chopped almonds, and parmesan, all stirred into orecchiette. This dish is satisfying with a fantastic mix of flavors and textures. With a couple substitutions, you can easily make it vegan.
If you’re looking for another pasta and greens recipe, try this cacio e pepe-inspired kale spaghetti.
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
This is a quick and easy vegetarian dinner that’s great for a busy nights when you want something homemade and wholesome. Rapini is a vegetable that’s simple to prep and cook. After that, you simmer the orecchiette, sauté the garlic and spices with the rapini and stir in the pasta, beans, nuts and cheese.
The pasta has a wonderful combination of flavors and textures. The bitterness of the rapini pairs beautifully with the nutty crunch of the almonds and creamy rich cannellini beans. The vegetables and beans end up tucked into the orecchiette pasta.
This simple recipe is vegetarian as written, but you can make it vegan. All you have to do is skip the parmesan cheese or use a dairy-free, plant-based brand or sprinkle it with nutritional yeast.
The Ingredients
This is what you need:
- Rapini, also known as broccoli rabe, is a green cruciferous vegetable. You can eat all of it from leaves to stems to buds, which look like less dense broccoli. With these different parts, you get good variety in each bite. Rapini has pleasantly bitter and nutty flavor.
- Orecchiette: This ear-shaped pasta scoops up the green veggies along with the beans and almonds. That’s why it’s my pick for this recipe. You can substitute another short shape like penne or fusilli. It is also fine to use gluten-free pasta.
- White beans: Here I prefer plump cannellini beans, but you can also reach for a can of great northern beans or navy beans, which are smaller.
- Garlic: Mincing garlic is what I typically do for both salad and pasta recipes, but for this one, I thinly slice it. Those slices end up lightly golden when you sauté them.
- Lemon: Nothing goes to waste, I include both the fresh lemon juice and lemon zest. Overall, this makes it zesty and bright.
- Almonds give the pasta that all-important nutty crunch. I like this contrast with the softness of the pasta and beans. You can substitute with toasted walnuts or pine nuts.
- Parmesan: I finish the pasta with grated parmesan cheese. For something more bold, you can go with pecorino or use a combination of both. To make the recipe vegan, leave out the cheese or use a dairy-free, plant based substitute. You can sprinkle it with nutritional yeast.
- Olive oil: For the best flavor, use high quality extra virgin olive oil.
- Red pepper flakes, kosher salt, black pepper season the pasta. You can add more red pepper flakes if you want the rapini pasta to have more heat and spice.
How To Make This Rapini Pasta Recipe
1. Prep the rapini. First rinse it with cold water to remove any lingering dirt. Then trim the thick bottom ends. Cut the rapini into 1 to 2-inch lengths including the leaves.
2. Blanch the rapini. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Blanch the rapini for 1 minute. Use a slotted spoon or spider to transfer it to a paper towel lined sheet pan, so it can dry off.
3. Cook the orecchiette. You can use the same pot that you cooked the rapini in. Follow the recommended cook time on the package directions. It should turn out al dente. Then drain it in a colander.
4. Sauté the aromatics. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet or sauté pan over medium heat. Add the garlic, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper, cooking until fragrant, about 30 seconds – 1 minute.
5. Sauté the chopped rapini. Give it 2-3 minutes. It should be tender, but still crisp.
6. Add the cannellini beans and cooked pasta. Sauté for a couple minutes until everything is warmed through.
7. Fold in the lemon zest and juice, almonds and parmesan. When you serve it, you can sprinkle on more almonds and grated cheese.
Serving
To go with this broccoli rabe pasta, I like to do a salad. Try this classic restaurant house salad, lemon arugula salad or an Italian chopped salad. If I have a loaf of bread with a good crust, I will serve that on the side too.
Storage & Leftovers
Let the pasta cool to room temperature. You can store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge up to 3 days. Reheat the pasta with a splash of olive oil in a skillet over medium-low heat or in the microwave. You also can eat it cold. I like to turn it into a lunch salad by adding baby arugula and spinach and drizzling in lemon vinaigrette or balsamic vinaigrette.
Recipe Tips
- Rinse off the rapini before you cut it. That will get rid of the grit and dirt that is typically on the leaves and stems.
- Don’t overcook the rapini. You want to quickly blanch it in salted boiling water and then sauté it for 2-3 minutes. The stems should have some crispness.
- The same goes for the pasta—don’t overcook it. The orecchiette should be al dente with a good toothy bite.
- Taste the pasta before you serve it. This may seem obvious, but you might need to give it another sprinkle of salt and/or pepper.
More Easy Pasta Recipes
Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta
Chickpea Spinach Pasta
Lemon Spaghetti with Mushrooms
Burst Tomato Pasta
Skillet Gnocchi with Roasted Red Peppers
Lemon Pepper Kale Pasta
Mushroom Spinach Penne Pasta
Creamy Sun-Dried Tomato Fettuccine
Lemon Rapini Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 bunch rapini (about 12 ounces)
- 8 ounces orecchiette
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 15 ounce can cannellini beans
- 1 lemon, zest and juice
- 1/4 cup chopped almonds plus more for serving
- 1/4 cup grated parmesan plus more for serving
Instructions
- Prep the rapini. Rinse it with cold water to remove any dirt. Trim off the thick bottom ends. Then cut it into 1 to 2-inch lengths, including the leaves, stems and florets.
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Blanch the rapini for 1 minute. Use a slotted spoon or spider to transfer it to a paper towel lined sheet pan to dry off.
- Cook the orecchiette in the boiling water you used for the rapini. Follow the recommended cook time for al dente pasta on the package instructions. Drain it in a colander.
- Warm the olive oil in a large skillet or sauté pan over medium heat. Sauté the garlic, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper until fragrant, about 30 seconds – 1 minute.
- Add the rapini and sauté for 2-3 minutes until crisp-tender.
- Stir in the orecchiette and cannellini beans. Continue cooking for a couple minutes until everything is warmed through.
- Add the lemon zest and juice, almonds and parmesan, stirring it together.
- Top with additional almonds and parmesan as desired when serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
