Pasta With Green Bean Ragù
Updated May 28, 2025
- Total Time
- 35 minutes
- Prep Time
- 10 minutes
- Cook Time
- 25 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 12ounces green beans, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
- 2tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1yellow onion, diced
- 8ounces hot or sweet Italian sausage links, casings removed
- 1teaspoon fennel or cumin seeds
- ½teaspoon crushed red pepper
- 1lemon, halved
- 1pound short pasta, such as orecchiette, macaroni or wagon wheels
- 3ounces grated Parmesan (about ¾ cup), plus more for serving
Nutritional analysis per serving (4 servings)
724 calories; 21 grams fat; 7 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 9 grams monounsaturated fat; 2 grams polyunsaturated fat; 99 grams carbohydrates; 7 grams dietary fiber; 8 grams sugars; 36 grams protein; 800 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil. Add the green beans and cook, adjusting the heat as needed to maintain a simmer, as you cook the sauce. (Don’t worry about overcooking the beans; they can simmer for 10 to 30 minutes total.)
- Step 2
While the beans simmer, heat the oil in a large Dutch oven over medium. Add the onion and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is soft and translucent, about 3 minutes.
- Step 3
Add the sausage and cook, breaking it up with a wooden spoon and stirring occasionally, until well browned and starting to stick to the bottom of the pan, about 7 minutes.
- Step 4
Reduce the heat to low. Stir in the fennel seeds and red pepper and cook until fragrant, just a few seconds.
- Step 5
Add the juice of ½ lemon and ½ cup of the cooking water from the green bean pot. Raise the heat if needed to simmer, stirring constantly, until the ragù is glossy, about 5 minutes. Add more water from the pot if necessary; the ragù should be saucy like gravy. Keep warm over very low heat.
- Step 6
Add the pasta to the saucepan with the green beans and cook according to package instructions. Reserve 2 cups of the cooking water. Drain the pasta and green beans and transfer to the Dutch oven with the ragù. Add the Parmesan and 1 cup of the reserved cooking water, stirring vigorously, until the pasta is saucy and shiny and lightly coated with sauce. If needed, stir in more water, a little at a time. Taste and add more salt, pepper, lemon juice and cheese as desired.
Private Notes
Comments
No Italian has ever measured salt, in any dish but especially not in pasta water. How much to add? “Quanto basta.” Just enough.
@Mimi I find that dry pasta cooked in totally unsalted water tastes fundamentally different from pasta cooked in salted water, and that no matter how salty the other ingredients are, the pasta cooked in unsalted water tastes flat to me because the pasta hasn’t soaked up any salt while it’s cooking. It just tastes different (not as palatable). To me.
@Diana We mostly have what are called Romano beans, an Italian-style of green bean that is large and flat and loves to be deeply cooked. Their flavor is far superior to the slender standard US green bean, imo. If you find some in a farmer's market or if you garden, try to get your hands on some. My Calabrese family makes a dish of them that has tons of garlic, olive oil and a smattering of slightly crushed boiled potato, very traditional.
Delicious! I love Eric Kim’s recipes, so I was excited to try this one. I didn’t cook it exactly as written; when I read 1lb of pasta I knew it would need more of the other ingredients. I used a little over a lb of ground Italian sausage to skip the de-casing step. I also had some leftover mini peppers from another recipe, so I added those in when I added the sausage to the onions. Instead of green beans I used 1lb asparagus (an excellent suggestion from the author), simmered whole until just softened & set aside while the pasta cooked, then cut to size before stirring everything together. I used one & a half lemon, & god knows how much cheese I used. Finished with a handful of rough chopped parsley. I will make this recipe again!
My husband and I have found our perfect ratios for this dish. That’s not to say the original is “wrong.” In fact, I can’t believe I decided to cook a dish with what I would ordinarily consider vegetables that are overcooked. This dish is a triumph. I will admit our ratios are different: we use 8oz of trofie pasta, 12oz green beans, 8oz sausage, somewhere between 2-3oz parm, the juice from half a lemon, and the zest from a whole one. On the whole, though, it’s the same. We just like more stuff in our pasta ,and the trofie is how we made it the first time around because that’s what we had. The loveliness of the dish is the technique and simple ingredients allow you to change ratios as you wish without really changing the character of the dish.
Outstanding! A new favorite. Genius recipe! I add bell peppers and celery root to kick it up a notch.