High Country: A cannabis-infused pasta perfect for an at-home aprés ski

In October, High Country kicked off a seasonal series with Kitchen Toke — a quarterly, design-driven magazine known as the first internationally distributed food journal dedicated to cooking with cannabis for health and wellness. In celebration of its recent winter issue release, we’re back with a hearty, cannabis-infused pasta recipe that’s perfect for an at-home après-ski pour deux.

Founder Joline Rivera is also celebrating her role in Food & Wine magazine’s in-depth cannabis feature in its January issue. Editor Hunter Lewis called her “one of the most clear-eyed visionaries of the new culinary cannabis world” and turned to her and the Kitchen Toke team to vet “The Food & Wine Guide To Culinary Cannabis.”

This mainstream endorsement for cannabis follows its historic inclusion at the Food & Wine Classic last summer — for the first time in its 37 years, the Grand Tasting Pavilion welcomed two CBD companies (Grön CBD and Fleur d’Henri) as official exhibitors. According to festival organizers, the next Food & Wine Classic (June 19 to 21) “will offer even more cannabis programming as an extension of last year and the January story.”

Here’s Kitchen Toke’s recipe for fresh pappardelle with winter greens, hazelnuts and ricotta salata (courtesy of Elise Swopes). And if you need a refresher on how to make the required cannabutter base, hit the High County archive on aspentimes.com or visit kitchentoke.com.

Ingredients:

• 7 ounces fresh pappardelle pasta

• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

• 2 small shallots, minced

• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

• 4 sprigs organic flat-leaf parsley, minced

• 3 ounces winter greens such as mizuna, tatsoi or beet greens

• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

• 1 tablespoon cannabutter

• Salt and pepper, to taste

• 3 tablespoons dry-roasted hazelnuts, roughly chopped

• 1½ ounces ricotta salata, grated

Instructions:

• Bring a large pan of salted water to boil. Add pasta; cook until al dente. Drain well, reserving ¼ cup cooking water.

• Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add shallots and pepper flakes; cook, stirring, until shallots begin to soften. Add cooked pasta, parsley and pasta water; heat through. Stir in the greens, lemon juice and cannabutter; cook just until greens wilt.

• Remove from heat; season with salt and pepper. Garnish with hazelnuts and ricotta salata.

Yield:

• Makes 2 servings at approximately 20 milligrams of THC (equivalent to the standard dose of 10 milligrams per person) based on using a 15% THC strain of cannabis flower.

Recipe courtesy of Elise Swopes

Katie Shapiro can be reached at katie@katieshapiromedia.com and followed on Twitter @bykatieshapiro