Farm Fridays: Sauteed Kale with Bacon

My farm share has been looking pretty scanty lately. The crop loss and delayed plantings due to the eight inches of rain we had in June are finally having an impact on my basket. The quality of the produce hasn't suffered, though. I brought home two bunches of beautiful curly kale this week. One of them will be making its way into a casserole in a few days, but I decided that the rest of it ought to be used immediately, while it was still so wonderfully fresh and crisp. I had a single strip of bacon in the freezer, left over from something we made a few weeks ago, so this dish was a no-brainer.

Why is it that the dark greens - kale, spinach, collards - which are so wonderfully healthy and good go so well with bacon, which, despite its deliciousness, is one of the least healthy foods in the universe? And bacon is so efficient: cooking oil, flavor agent and meaty goodness all in one! Even better, I threw this dish together in my cast iron skillet, so that bacony flavor will be infused in future dishes. That one strip of bacon wears many hats (not to mention artery clogger and cholesterol raiser).

I'm not really trying to scare you off the bacon, though. Everything in moderation, right? It's just one strip of bacon, and its ill effects are (maybe) counteracted by the pile of vitamin- and fiber-full greens. We all want to be healthy, but we have to live a little, too. And somewhere in the midst of that compromise, my friends, this dish lies. So enjoy your bacon. And enjoy your kale.

Sauteed Kale with Bacon

1 strip thick-cut smoked bacon
1/2 onion
4 oz kale
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat a large skillet over medium heat. Add the bacon and saute 3-4 minutes, until the fat has rendered and the edges begin to crisp.

Add the onion and saute another 4-5 minutes, until softened and translucent.

Finally, add the kale (in batches, if necessary - I managed to squeeze it all into this pan at once, but it was a stretch). Cook, stirring occasionally, until wilted but still vibrantly green, about 7-8 minutes.

Fettucine with Kale, Green Garlic and Lemon

I can't believe we had a frost last night. I planted all my summer vegetables over the weekend, so I had to frantically put tarps down and carry all my containers to the garage. I actually did all this Sunday night and left it in place until this morning, since yesterday was so cold. I really hope that this was winter's last hurrah - I want to be eating fresh spring veggies from my garden soon!

Since strawberries and radishes and peas aren't ready, I've been contenting myself with cold-hardy greens from the farmer's market (and gorging myself on asparagus - one of those recipes is coming soon). I threw this dish together for lunch the other day. It's fast, fresh and tasty.

If you've never used green garlic before, I recommend trying to get your hands on some. I got mine from the farmers market a few weeks ago. My guess is that the farm was thinning its rows of garlic and decided to sell the thinnings - and why not? They have a delicious fresh garlic flavor - strong, but without the bite of storage garlic cloves. Green garlic looks like a green onion, but should be treated like a leek - strip the old layers off, cut off the roots, and slice up the white and light green portions to use. The leaves go in the compost (or the stock bag!). It added a nice fresh flavor to the kale. If you can't find green garlic, regular garlic cloves or garlic scapes would work well here, too.

Fettucine with Kale, Green Garlic and Lemon
serves 2

6 oz whole wheat fettucine
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
2 stems green garlic (about 1 - 1 1/2 tbsp)
1 tsp red pepper flakes
3-4 c kale leaves, stripped from stems and ripped into bite-size pieces
zest and juice from 1/2 lemon
2 oz Pecorino-Romano cheese, shredded

Cook pasta in a large pot of boiling, salted water according to package directions.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the green garlic and red pepper flakes and saute about 1 minute, until fragrant. Add the kale and saute 3-4 minutes, tossing with garlic.

If the kale does not look cooked through at the end of 3-4 minutes, toss 2 tbsp water in the pan and quickly cover. Let the kale steam for a minute or two to finish cooking.

When the pasta is finished, drain (reserving 1/4 c water) and add to the pan with the kale. Add the lemon juice and zest and stir to combine. Add a bit of pasta water if necessary (I only needed a 2-3 tbsps). Serve topped with grated Pecorino-Romano.

Bacon and Butternut Pasta Bake

Are you holed up in your house waiting for the blizzard to start? Maybe it's time for a warm and tasty winter pasta dish!

I'm not going to lie to you - we made this a few weeks ago already, but I think it would be great for a cozy snowy evening. Bacon and Gruyere may not be good for the body, but they're totally good for the soul! And the kale and squash bump up the health factor a bit, don't they?

Ok, maybe not. It's not the healthiest dish, but it is tasty. And you'll probably burn those calories off with all the shoveling you'll have to do tomorrow.

Happy blizzard.

Bacon and Butternut Pasta
From Cooking Light January/February 2012.

5 c butternut squash, peeled and cubed
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
12 oz ziti
4 c kale, chopped
2 slices thick-cut bacon, chopped
2 c onion, sliced vertically
1 tsp salt, divided
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 c chicken broth, divided
2 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 c creme fraiche
1/3 c Gruyere, shredded

Preheat oven to 400° F. Put on a pot of boiling salted water for the pasta.

In a large bowl, toss squash with oil. Transfer squash to a foil-lined baking sheet and roast for 30 min, until tender.

Meanwhile, cook pasta about 7 min, until almost al dente (you want it underdone because it will continue to cook in the oven later). When the pasta has 2 minutes to go, add the kale to the water and cook with the pasta.

In a large nonstick skillet, cook the bacon until crisp. Remove from the pan and drain on a paper towel. Add onion to the pan with the bacon drippings and cook for about 6 minutes. Add 1/2 tsp salt and garlic and cook another minute, stirring.

Meanwhile, bring 1 3/4 c broth to a boil in a small saucepan. In a small bowl, whisk remaining 1/4 c broth with flour. Add flour mixture, remaining 1/2 tsp salt and red pepper to the broth. Cook 2 minutes, until slightly thickened. Remove from the heat and stir in the creme fraiche.

Combine the squash, pasta, kale, bacon, onion mixture and sauce in a large bowl and toss to combine.

Transfer to a 13 x 9 baking dish coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle the cheese evenly over the top. Bake for 25 minutes, until bubbly and beginning to brown.

Cauliflower, Kale and White Bean Soup

With the holidays so near, everything is starting to get busy. Between our normal activities, trips to the gym, and holiday baking and other preparations, we seem to be occupied every evening. This is not the time for complicated, time-consuming recipes (though I still love them, and have a good one to post some time soon!). This is the time for simple goodness simmering in a pot.

This soup is really easy to throw together, using some of my favorite winter vegetables. I can never get enough cauliflower. It's good in soup, roasted, pureed in pasta sauce, in curries, and sometimes even raw. Roasted cauliflower, in particular, doesn't last very long in our house. Leftovers are a rare occurrence. This soup didn't last long, either, since it combined the wonder of cauliflower with delicious, nutritious kale. I don't know about you guys, but when I eat kale, I feel so much more energetic and alert. Those vitamins must be doing something good!

What made our batch of soup extra special is that we made it with some of our Thanksgiving turkey stock. That stock turned out so thick and rich that it gelled in the fridge. There was definitely some extra protein floating around in there. If you have homemade poultry stock, it will make this soup more delicious. If you don't, it'll still turn out pretty good, and good for you!

Cauliflower, Kale and White Bean Soup
Adapted from What Would Cathy Eat?

2 tbsp olive oil
3 leeks, white and light green parts sliced and soaked
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
4 c kale, chopped
2-3 c cannellini beans, cooked
1 small head cauliflower, broken into bite-sized florets
6 c turkey stock
2 c water
1 bay leaf
1 tbsp dried parsley (fresh would be better, if you have it)
salt and black pepper to taste (my stock is unsalted, so I had to add a lot of salt to the soup)
4 tbsp grated Parmesan

In a large Dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the leeks and cook about 10 minutes, until softened. Add garlic and red pepper flakes and cook about 1 minute, until fragrant. Add kale and cook for 5 more minutes.

Add the beans, cauliflower, stock, water, bay leaf, parsley, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 12-15 minutes, until the cauliflower is very tender. Stir in Parmesan and serve. (Remember to remove your bay leaf!)

Sausage and Kale Saute

I thought I would share one of the delicious dishes Jeff and I made with our farmers market finds from last week, discussed in this post. We took the sweet sausage from Beech Tree Farm in Hopewell and the kale from North Slope Farm in Lambertville (supplemented with some store-bought kale - we didn't have enough!) and made this delicious saute.

The pork was perfect for this recipe - flavorful without being too greasy. The sausage casings came off easily and the meat crumbled well in the pan. There's nothing like fresh sausage for something like this. I remember how I used to try to remove store-bought chicken sausages from their casings - it just doesn't work. I'm sticking with the good stuff from now on. Some of the kale was slightly bitter, but the sweetness of the red peppers balanced it out nicely. The original recipe included maple syrup, perhaps to balance the bitterness of the kale, but we didn't notice its presence at all, so I wouldn't bother including it from now on.

Overall, this is a bright, tasty dish - definitely my favorite kale recipe. The vivid colors brighten up a winter table, too!

Sausage and Kale Saute
Adapted from The Locavore's Kitchen.

2 tbsp olive oil, divided

1 lb sweet Italian sausage (if using links, remove the casings)

1 onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced (I used strips that I had frozen in the fall - this was probably my best preserving idea of the season. Next year, I plan on freezing a ton of these. Much better than paying $4-5/lb for off-season peppers, and they still taste great!)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 lb kale, chopped

2 tbsp water

salt and pepper to taste

Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat (you will need a pot with high sides to contain all the kale). Add the sausage, breaking it up into small chunks, and cook 10-15 minutes, until thoroughly cooked and beginning to brown. Remove with a slotted spoon onto a paper-towel lined plate to drain.

Keep the pan on the heat and add the remaining tablespoon of oil. When it's hot, add the onion and red pepper to the pan. Saute until soft, 5-6 minutes. Add the garlic and saute until fragrant.

Add the kale and stir until slightly wilted, tossing with the oil and veggies. Add the reserved sausage and 2 tbsp water (to help steam the kale a bit) and stir well. Cover the pot and cook an additional 5-10 minutes, until the kale is tender. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

30 by 30: Sauteed Kale with Pine Nuts

I mentioned my birthday was last week. I've come to the conclusion that I'm getting old. And since this will continue to happen with or without my consent, I'd better get with the program.

Enter my 30 by 30 list. I had actually tried to come up with one of these lists last fall (so I had some time to get a jump on it), but I didn't even come up with fifteen items. I looked at other people's lists for inspiration (this concept is quite popular in the blogosphere) - people wanted to write a novel or climb Mt Everest before they turned 30. Personally, I find these "goals" a little silly. Writing a novel is not some sort of mandatory requirement for adulthood, and if everyone were to write one before their 30th birthday, there would be a lot more garbage on the shelves of Barnes and Noble than there already is. Unless you already have pretensions of authorship, it's a ridiculous goal. And I have no pretensions of climbing Mt Everest. So my list included some more plebeian things like starting a retirement account, getting a puppy and writing a few dissertation chapters (some of which I managed to accomplish already). But since I couldn't even come up with 30 things to do that seemed meaningful and achievable, this idea has lost a bit of steam.

Until now, that is. I have come up with a great twist on the 30 by 30 idea: I will try 30 new foods before I turn 30! This is good because I continue to be a picky eater and I really don't want to go through the rest of my adult life this way. I don't have to like everything, but I need to at least give these foods a good try. And it is a challenging goal because this is something I've already been consciously working on for a year or so, so it's going to be more difficult to find new foods to try. I'm going to be keeping track of these on a separate page of the blog, so you can all play along at home.

I inaugurated this list last night with . . . kale! I actually have no experience with dark leafy greens like kale, chard or collards, and they've been on my list of things to try. As I tore the leaves from the stems, I was surprised at how firm and almost sharp the kale leaves were. That firm almost-sharpness stuck around, too - I felt it pricking the sides of my stomach after dinner! I had a taste of it raw and thought it had a cabbage-like tang, so I was not surprised to learn (via Wikipedia later in the evening) that it belongs to the cabbage family. Cooked, though, I did not get much flavor from it. It is definitely fibrous and time-consuming to chew (which can be good - eating your food slowly gives your stomach time to realize it's full!), but not tough or otherwise unpleasant. In short, I give kale an average review.

This recipe, however, makes me want to eat the kale: mix in red onion, garlic and toasted pine nuts (ok, I managed to burn mine rather than toast them - twice) and this is something I want to eat. It was like a treasure hunt: find the tasty little bits among the kale! But in doing so, I ate the nice, healthy, vitamin-rich kale, which is a good thing.

And did I mention that it looks gorgeous? It cooks to a beautiful, appetizing bright green color. With the bits of purpley-red onion and toasty pine nut accents scattered through it, it was truly an ornament for the table.

Would I do this again? Probably. But I'm not sure if I'm totally on the kale bandwagon yet. Let's see if I start craving those leftovers . . .

Sauteed Kale with Toasted Pine Nuts
Adapted from Bon Appetit (not sure which issue - sometime in the winter of 2010-11).

2 bunches kale (1 lb)
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 red onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 c pine nuts, toasted (definitely do this in a dry pan, and keep them moving - I tried to cheat and use the toaster oven and burnt two separate batches)

Tear the kale leaves off the stems and shred them coarsely.

Heat the oil in a Dutch oven (or other large, heavy-bottomed pan) over medium-high heat. Add the onion and garlic and sautee until soft (about 3 minutes, in my case, since I chopped the onion small).

Add the kale and cook until it wilts, tossing often (about 3 minutes). The kale should be just tender and still a very bright green. (If you have too much kale for your pan, sautee half for the first three minutes, then add the second half for three minutes more - this is advised by the original recipe, which involved two pounds of kale). Toss with pine nuts and season with salt and pepper to serve.