BLT Pasta (NY Times)

 A friend gifted me with a bowl of cherry tomatoes and I'd also had a few cherry tomatoes from my deer and bug eaten plats, so I thought it was a good time to make this BLT Pasta recipe from the NYT.  I used rigatoni instead of the "paccheri" pasta called for. Recipe said you couldl also substitute penne, but I don't think it would catch the chunks in the sauce as well.  This version is also halved to feed 2. :-)

BLT Pasta (Adapted from the NYT)

Ingredients:

• 6 oz rigatoni pasta (update: also works fine with penne! 😀)
• 4 ounces bacon, diced into ½-inch pieces (I used Nueske's applewood smoked bacon from the Fresh Market)
  
• 8 oz cherry tomatoes, halved, plus a few more
  
• Diamond Crystal kosher salt  and black pepper
• 2.5 ounces baby arugula (or more!) update 4/6/26 also have used frisee (5oz) or escarole (5oz).
• 1/4 cup grated Pecorino Romano, plus more for serving (I used Parmigiano Reggiano)
  
• Flaky salt, for serving (optional)

Intructions:

1. Cook pasta in salted water until about 1 minute from being completely done.  Drain and reserving 1 cup pasta water.
2. You can start the sauce while the pasta's cooking. In a 5-qt dutch oven or large skillet,  place the bacon cook over medium-low heat until crisp, stirring occasionally to make sure it does not burn, about 8 minutes (sometimes I'll start it with 1/2 cup of water, that allows some of the fat to render and then the bacon can crisp in that fat after the water evaporates). Remove bacon  with a slotted spoon and set aside on a plate lined with paper towels. If there's a lot of fat, you may want to remove all but 1 tbs or so.
   
3. Turn heat to medium and add the tomatoes to the skillet, tossing them to coat in the bacon fat. Season with salt and pepper. As the moisture from the tomatoes releases, scrape any browned bits that have accumulated at the bottom of the pan (add a few tablespoons of the pasta water if you need to) and continue to cook until the tomatoes begin to fall apart, about 5 to 7 minutes more. Add half of the cooked bacon back to the skillet and toss to combine.
4. Increase the heat to medium-high and add the cooked pasta directly to the skillet tossing to coat with the sauce. Add the arugula and and a couple tablespoons of the pasta water, and carefully toss (Here's where the NYT warns "you'll have a very full pan" and why I like to use a dutch oven rather than a skillet for these types of recipes!) until the arugula wilts. 
5. Add the cheese and another 2 tbs pasta water, and toss together until the cheese emulsifies and the pasta is glossy with sauce. If needed, add another 2 tbs  cup pasta water to loosen the sauce. 

 

Some pics:

 

Pretty cherry tomatoes - some sungolds from my plants, and mostly I think Black Cherry tomatoes from my friend:

Cut in half:

 

Finished dish:

 

Greens Tacos

I've made collard greens tacos before, using this recipe from Serious Eats.  With two weeks worth of collards sitting in fridge, I needed to do something.  Forgetting I'd already made tacos with greens before, I searched and found almost the identical recipe at Rick Bayless' web site, which also comes along with a little video for "taco Tuesday" showing Rick making the recipe.  You can use any kind of greens in the recipe, the only thing that will vary is the cooking time for the greens.  I needed to cook the collards for about 25-30 minutes to get them to the tenderness I like, but you do you.

Collard Green Taco Filling

Ingredients

• 1 large onion (I used a vidalia), halved through the root and sliced thinly crosswise
• 1 lb clean, chopped collard greens (yield from two bunches - last week's was a little bigger than this weeks)
• 6 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1 tsp red chile flakes
• 3/4 cup chicken broth, vegetable broth or water (I used chicken broth)
• salt and pepper to taste

Procedure

Heat olive oil over medium heat in 5-qt non-stick dutch oven. Add onion, a sprinkle of salt and saute for about 20 minutes until caramelized (you may need to reduce the heat the heat to low).  Add chopped garlic and chile flakes to pan, and stir around for about 30 sec (until you can smell the garlic).  Increase heat to medium high, add 3/4 cup of broth, and the greens.  Let the greens wilt down, and when the broth comes to a simmer, reduce heat to low, cover and cook, stirring occasionally until the greens are done to your liking (about 30 minutes for collards).  Remove lid and let most of the remaining liquid evaporate.

To serve, place a scoop of greens into a warmed corn tortilla (I warm mine over a gas flame) sprinkle with queso fresco.  Add salsa if you like, the Serious Eats recipe linked above has a recipe for a chipotle salsa that's pretty easy.  I also like to mix the greens with scrambled eggs for a breakfast taco.

Some pics!

onions

onions cooked down, adding the garlic and chile flakes

adding the greens

all cooked

Collard greens in tacos?

Yes, you can put anything in a taco.  Tacos with greens apparently aren't all that uncommon, though it's not something I've ever seen in a restaurant.  Last year I made some breakfast tacos with beet greens and egg, and they were pretty good.  Week before last I had some folks over for tacos and end-of-curriculum celebration, and I wanted to have a vegetarian taco available along with the beef and chicken, and also, I needed to use up some of the greens from the week 3 CSA box - along with all the lettuce, there was a bunch of collards.  I found this recipe for Braised Greens Tacos on Serious Eats, and decided to give it a try.  I used a Vidalia onion in place of the red onion, and blistered the cherry tomatoes for the salsa under the broiler rather than a frying pan.  I used water instead of chicken or veggie broth for the braise (I wanted to keep it vegan, and I didn't have veggie broth).  I found that I needed about 15 minutes of braising to get the collards to a tenderness I liked.  Surprisingly tasty!  Also good with scrambled eggs in a tortilla. No pics of an actual taco, but here is the filling in the pan:

It's not easy being green...

Ok, so we were not fooling around this week with the greens.  A reminder of what we're dealing with here:

It's like >5 lbs of greens!  Two of the pounds were salad mix and something labeled "stir fry mix"

I dropped a handful of these in some scrambled eggs yesterday, but was looking for some other ways to use them up as...well, there is a LOT.  The internet provided (eventually) as I found this recipe on the NY Times website for Provencal Greens Soup, and I thought a soup that described the greens ingredient as "...wild greens that you might forage on an afternoon’s walk, such as nettles, watercress and dandelion greens." would fit the bill nicely for these guys - don't they look like something you'd gather during a walk in southern France?

So, a couple of leeks in hand, I set off to make the soup.  A few changes I made were to use 4-cups of chicken broth that I had in our malfunctioning 2-month old freezer in the garage that I needed to empty (yes, I'm bitter) as well as add a parmesan rind as suggested in the comment on the recipe.  There were many, many other suggestions in the comments, as well as a general feeling that tempering eggs is harder than it sounds.  At any rate, I thought it was tasty, and I used about 3/4 of the greens!  Yay!  (I probably could have squeezed all of them in)

Provencal Greens Soup (adapted from the New York Times)

Ingredients:

1. 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2. 2 leeks, sliced in half lengthwise and sliced thinly crosswise, then washed and drained. (I used leeks that were about 1" in diameter, and only the white and light green parts).
3. 4 garlic cloves, sliced
4. Kosher salt
5. 6 cups chopped greens. I didn't measure this very carefully, I filled up a bowl (see pic below) w/ about 5-6 large handfuls, then put them on the cutting board and ran a knife through them a few times to chop. 
6. 4 cups chicken stock
7. 2 cups water  
8. parmesan rind
9. Black pepper to taste
10. 2 large eggs
11. Slices of good bread (whatever is good to you - I used some pane di casa from the Teeter, any "sturdy" bread will do. If I'd realized I'd be making this I'd have bought some bread at the Curb Market yesterday.) 
12. 1 clove garlic cut in half
13. Additional grated parmesan for serving.

What to do:

1. Heat up the olive oil in a heavy pot over medium heat, add the leeks and saute 5 minutes until tender. Add the garlic and about 1/2 teaspoon salt, and cook about 1 minute until the garlic is fragrant.  Add the greens and stir until they wilt a bit.  Add the water and stock and parmesan rind, and bring the mixture to a boil and reduce to a simmer.  Simmer partially covered for 15-20 minutes until the greens are tender.  Add more salt and pepper to taste.
2.  Beat the eggs. While whisking the eggs, drizzle in 1-2 ladles (about a cup or two) of the hot soup.  Whisk the egg soup mixture back into the rest of the soup.  This is "tempering" and is supposed to avoid scrambled egg soup.  If they scramble, don't panic, call it egg drop soup with greens and move on with your life.
3. To serve:  Toast a slice of bread (brush with olive oil if you like).  Rub the toast w/ a cut clove of garlic.  Chop toast into bite sized chunks and put in the soup bowl.  Ladle soup over.  Grate some parmesan on top.  You can skip the bread if you like.

Some pics!  Your mise:

Sauteing the leeks:

Adding the greens and simmering:

Soup's on!

And, while I'm playing with my phone, here's the strawberry shortcake we had for Mother's Day lunch dessert.  Strawberries from Rudd Farm, biscuits (shortcake) from Smitten Kitchen, and ice cream from last week's barbecue for our seniors.  And hey, the biscuits are too easy, you don't even need a sifter, just whisk all the dry ingredients together and add the cream.

Attack of the Greens! Making it fit!

So late yesterday afternoon I went to pick up this week's CSA box.  Greens-greens-greens!

 What have we got?

• bok choy
• collards
• kale
• cabbage
• salad mix
• peppers (2)
• butternut squash (3 lbs! A monster!)
• garlic

Which are all quite delicious but a little overwhelming if you're trying to cram all them in your fridge, especially if it still has some greens in it from last week!  So, to decrease the volume, and increase the likelihood that I'll use them, I've tried to chop and wash the greens as soon as I get home:

Washed and dried (with that salad spinner I told you to get awhile ago) they'll keep for a week or more in a ziploc bag with a paper towel in the bottom to absorb moisture.  Now that they are cleaned and chopped, it'll be much easier to drop them into to a recipe after work on a weeknight.

Week 5 CSA Share beauty shot

I've been remiss about posting what we get each week, so here you go Iain:

What's in this week's basket?

• The triumphant return of SALAD MIX! (0.5 lbs)
• Kale (0.5 lbs)
• 1 bunch mustard greens
• 2 bell peppers (I got a green and a red)
• Eggplant (1 lb)
• Okra (2/3 lb)
• 1 head garlic
• Broccoli (1lb)
• Sweet potatoes (2 lbs)

Chopped and washed the greens, but didn't make anything with the basket tonight.  I can tell you to look for a sauerkraut post soon, though!

Mustard greens pasta

Week before last we had a lovely bunch of mustard greens in the the CSA.  Greens and pasta are great together, and I found this recipe and thought it would be good to adapt since I had three links of this chicken kale sausage (that I bought on sale) to use up.

Here's how I put it together for two servings:
Ingredients
6 oz pasta (I used farfalle)
3 links chicken kale sausage, sliced (you could use 8 oz of whatever sausage you like.  If it's raw, crumble and cook it before adding to the pasta)
1 yellow onion chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 bunch mustard greens, chopped (stripped out any large stems)
2 oz (1/2 cup) grated parmesan
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp red chile flakes (if you're not using hot Italian sausage)
2 tbs half and half
2 tbs pasta water or chicken broth

Process:
Cook pasta in hot salted boiling water until al dente - drain and reserve pasta water.  I

Heat a 5 qt dutch oven over medium heat. Add 1 tsp of olive oil and then chopped onion, cook 4-5 minutes until tender.  Add chopped garlic and chile flakes, saute 1-2 minutes.  If you're using raw sausage, you could add it at this point and saute until cooked.

Add greens onion/garlic mixture, saute until wilted and tender 2-5 minutes. (if you're using cooked sausage, add it at this point and heat).  Season with salt and pepper. 

Stir in half and half, cheese, pasta water or chicken broth and cooked pasta. Heat until cheese melts.

Serve on two plates or pasta bowls, sprinkle with additional grate parmesan.

Some pics - chopping and washing the greens:

Sausage and greens mixture:

 Plated up!

Would also be good with some toasted pine nuts!!

Roasted Eggplant and Sauteed Greens Lasagna

Fall's CSA last year was filled with eggplant, perhaps a little too much eggplant.  This year Nick is trying not to overwhelm us, but we are gauranteed two varieties (1 lb each) each week.  Last week it was a pound of "Casper", white, ghostly eggplants, and a pound of "Orient Charm" a long, thin, pink eggplant.  We also got one bunch of broccoli greens, which I've never had before but the note with the basket said we could saute them like collards.  So, I thought it would be a good time to make this Roasted Eggplant and Sauteed Greens Lasagne from Food52 that I discovered during last year's CSA eggplantapalooza (eggplantapocolypse? eggplantnado? I don't know,  but you get the idea).  The recipe suggests using a modified version of Marcella Hazan's tomato sauce, which I recall making last year (and it is delicious), but this time I didn't have the time so I just used a jar of Trader Giotto's Marinara I had in the pantry.  It was a little less than the quart required, so I added a can of chopped tomatoes with their juice (at the end, when I realized everything was a bit dry...would have been better to mix that in at the beginning.  I also used regular shredded mozzarella rather than fresh. 

So slice the eggplant, toss in some olive oil and spread on a sheet to roast at 450 for 20 min (the recipe fusses around with rotating pans but I ain't got time for that while I'm trying to make a different dinner at the same time)

(I might have sprayed them w/ a little olive oil spray before roasting.
Saute the chopped greens:

And then build the lasagna according to instructions (no photos).  Bake covered with foil for 40 min at 350°F.  Remove foil and back 5-10 minutes to brown.  I discovered last year that this freezes and reheats well:

Hello World...

I picked up my first CSA box of the summer from the Guilford College Farm, and I thought it would be fun project to blog my way through it this summer.  One of those great ideas that may or may not turn out to be something I can keep up with.  At any rate, here we go with day 1:

I picked up the box this afternoon at the college farm.  I'll have to add some pictures of the farm soon, but for now you just get the box:

Here's what I found inside:

(Hmm....maybe this blog will also give me an opportunity to work on my food photography skills)

According to the list from Nick (he always includes a nice note, a recipe and a list of all the items in the box), this pile of produce is:

• 1 bunch swiss chard
• 1 bunch kale
• 1 pound salad mix (mixed lettuces)
• 1 bunch spring onions
• 1 bunch radishes
• 1/2 pound spinach
• 1/2 pound mustard greens
• 1 bunch mint

That's quite the deal for $20! (Guilford's CSA this spring/summer is 12 weeks for $240).

So, what did I do tonight?  Well, I've been dreaming of radishes thinly sliced on buttered bread with flaky salt sprinkled on top (don't knock it 'til you've tried it!).  I also had been re-reading Vivian Howard's Deep Run Roots and I remembered that she had a recipe for "Fancy Sandwiches" that involved radishes and butter.  I stopped at the HT on the way home and picked up a baguette.  When I got home and actually read the recipe, I realized I was short several ingredients, like mayo and cucumbers, but I was determined to try this!  So I made some mayonnaise (don't be impressed, it's not that hard, and you can tell classes are out since I did it, using this recipe from Food 52)  Mayonnaise in hand, I made this spread (adapted from Deep Run Roots):

Radish Sandwich Spread for Fancy Sandwiches:

• 4 tbs salted butter
• 2 tbs mayonnaise
• 4 tbs cream cheese
• 1/2 cup radishes, grated
• 1/4 cup radish greens, minced
• 1/4 tsp salt (or so)

Mix together this first 3 ingredients until well combined, the add the radishes, greens and salt.  I spread this on toasted baguette slices and topped them with thin slices of radish and sprinkled them with flaky sea salt:

 So ok, yeah, I'm gonna work on the photography, but it tasted good!

Then it was (past) time to make dinner.  All those greens are going to have to go somewhere, and I've found a good quick way to use them up is to make pasta.  I did an adaptation of this pasta dish from Cooking Light.  Instead of chard, I used the mustard greens.  I was by myself tonight - here's how much I made:

Pasta with Mustard Greens and Pancetta for dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow:

• 4 oz dry pasta (I used penne)
• 1 oz pancetta, chopped
• 1/2 pound mustard greens, large center rib removed, thinly sliced
• 1 cup finely chopped vidalia onion
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 ounce parmesan cheese, grated. 
• red pepper flakes, to taste 

While the pasta water was heating up, I chopped the pancetta and put it in a dutch oven on high (med high?) along with about a half cup of water.  As the water heats up an boils away, it renders out some of the fat and you can then use that fat to brown the pancetta after the water evaporates. Once the pancetta is nicely browned, remove it from the pan with a slotted spoon and set aside.  In the remaining fat, saute the onion for 5 minute until browned slighly.  Add garlic and saute until fragrant. Add mustard greens to pot (they should still have some water clinging to them) and saute 5 minutes until wilted.  Add reserved pancetta to pot.  It looked something like this:

While all this was going on,  my pasta was cooking to al dente (mine was Barilla penne, which takes about 11 minutes).  Add the drained pasta to the greens and pancetta, stir to mix well.  I took half of the pasta/greens mixture and topped it with 1 oz shredded parmesan cheese:

And dinner was served.  Tomorrow I'll mix the other half with some egg and make a frittata for breakfast. But now I need to clean up and go to bed.