Start boiling the water for the pasta first. Next, chop the garlic into small slivers and saute it in about 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. When the garlic is soft, add the pignoli nuts and saute until everything is golden and lightly browned. Turn the heat off.
When the water boils, throw in the pasta with some salt -- it'll take about 10 minutes to cook. Put a steamer over the pot. Strip the kale off its stems and tear into bite-sized pieces; put them aside until the last 2 minutes of cooking the pasta; then put the kale into the steamer and cook over the pasta.
As soon as the kale is wilted, pull the steamer off the pot and dump the kale in with the garlic and nuts. Mix well. Drain the pasta and put it into a deep bowl. Toss it with the kale mixture; serve immediately, with sea salt and fresh-ground pepper.