Recipe: Italian Alps inspire hearty whole-wheat pasta

TRAVEL to the far north of Italy and the terrain gets rougher, the weather colder, and the pastas more rustic. For centuries, buckwheat was one of the few grains hardy enough to survive in Valtellina, a small valley in the shadow of the Alps, and it shows in the food.

One such beloved tradition is pizzoccheri, a short, ribbon-shaped buckwheat noodle that’s baked like a casserole into a stick-to-your-ribs meal. Loaded with two kinds of cheese, potatoes, cabbage and sturdy greens, pizzoccheri feels like a perfect fit for the waning days of winter.

For our take in our book “COOKish,” which limits recipes to just six ingredients without sacrificing flavor, we skip the casserole and use the dish as inspiration for a more typical pasta. Easier-to-find whole-wheat pasta has a nuttiness similar to buckwheat pasta, and it’s the perfect backdrop for the subtle sweetness of gently sautéed leeks and cabbage,