I feel very fortunate today, for I have had the great good luck to become friends with the kind of people who will greet me with the phrase “I’ve got way too much produce on my hands, I need to get it out of here, take as much as you want.”
And who will then encourage you, as you are filling sacks upon sacks of amazing, beautiful, fresh veggies, to stuff your bags even more full.
My refrigerator is literally crammed, stuffed like a Strasbourg goose, with bags of bok choy and Chinese cabbage, kale, garlic scapes, collards, zucchini, spinach, and rocket.
I’ll be making garlic scape pesto later on, some of which will be tossed with sauteed zucchini.
The bok choy has a date with destiny in the form of mushrooms, garlic, and a hot wok.
The collards are already lined up to be shredded, steamed and put in the bottoms of bowls to have a brothy blend of fava beans and ham hock ladled over it. Perhaps some browned garlic over the top, little semi-crisp, sweet garlicky, salty chips. I made the beans and ham hock yesterday, needing to use up the hock, with no idea how I would serve them. Now I know. Obviously I was just making something to go with the greens.
The rest will fall into place, and by “place” I mean our bellies, by and by.
I am grateful for the kindness of friends.
{ 2 } Comments
I’m a greens novice, but was hoping you could suggest greens to add to the following: We make pasta with some crumbled bacon and a gently cooked egg on top. I’d like to wilt or saute some kind of green[s] to mix in with the pasta. What are some good ones for this flavor combo? (Maybe instead of the bacon using butter and garlic for the greens once in a while?) I’m not a big cook, but this is a favorite comfort food of mine so I was hoping to make it a tiny bit healthy… Thanks for the help in advance…
Well, let’s see. With your bacon and egg and the pasta, you’re 2/3 of the way to a pasta carbonara (a real carbonara would have some pecorino romano also, and your egg would be added directly to the hot pasta and tossed to coat the strands while the heat of the pasta cooks it gently). So looking at what green ingredients are traditional as additions to pasta carbonara, we come up with three basics: peas, onions, and bitter greens.
Personally, I would opt for arugula (rocket if you’re English), for starters. It’s easy to find and not too bitter, and delicate enough that you should be able to toss in a few handfuls of washed, dried greens with the hot pasta and bacon/bacon fat, toss, and it’ll wilt just fine on the pasta’s heat. Another choice would be Italian chicory greens, which are a bit more intense flavorwise. You could also try radicchio if it’s young and tender, or mizuna, a tender Japanese mustard-family green that is often eaten raw or lightly cooked.
There are also options that you would need to cook separately, then toss with the pasta, leaves that are a little too robust to wilt gracefully with just the heat of the pasta. Chard is lovely and nutty and a great friend to eggs and bacon anyhow. I would take a half-dozen (or more!) clean, dry chard leaves, lop off the stems, stack them, roll them longways like a cigar, then slice thinly across the cigar to make thin shreds or ribbons (this technique is called chiffonade). Wilt them in your bacon fat or butter or whatever fat you’re using for a few minutes, then combine with the hot pasta.
I don’t think I’d recommend mustard greens or collards, but if you had some nice young tender kale you could do the same as with the chard. It’ll need to cook a little longer.
Bon appetit! — HB
Yay! Thanks for the ideas!