Fast, Fresh & Green (18 page)

Serves 3

Bacon, maple, and ginger may sound like a funny combination until you translate those flavors into salty, sweet, and spicy. Then you realize how well they work with the slightly bitter, earthy flavor of the beautiful crinkly kale known variously as Tuscan kale,
cavalo nero
, dinosaur kale, black kale, and Lacinato kale. I love greens, but I find that many people, including most kids, won’t go near them. I’m not above adding a bit of sweetness (and pork fat!) to greens to make them more appealing to more people.

This pretty green can be braised, too, but boiling it until just tender, lets you drain excess moisture (and it’s quick). Tuscan kale usually comes in small bunches weighing 8 to 9 oz/225 to 255 g. If your bunches are slightly bigger (up to 10 oz/285 g), that’s fine for this recipe. Any more, and you’d have to up the pancetta, ginger, and maple.

KOSHER SALT

1 BUNCH
(8 to 9 oz/ 225 or 255 g)
TUSCAN KALE
(a.k.a. cavalo nero or black kale)

1 OZ/30 G VERY THINLY SLICED PANCETTA
(3 or 4 slices)

1 TBSP UNSALTED BUTTER

1½ TSP CHOPPED FRESH GINGER

1 TSP PURE MAPLE SYRUP

2 SMALL LEMON WEDGES

1
Fill a wide 4- to 5-qt/3.8- to 4.7-L pot
two-thirds full of water. Add 2 tsp salt and bring to a boil. Remove the ribs from the kale. Grab the rib with one hand and rip the two leafy sides away from it with the other. Cut or rip the leaves into two or three smaller pieces. You’ll have about 4 oz/115 g of greens. Add the greens to the boiling water and start timing immediately. Taste a leaf after 4 minutes. It shouldn’t be tough or rubbery. If it is, cook for 1 to 2 minutes more. Drain the kale very thoroughly in a strainer in the sink. Press down on the kale to squeeze out some excess liquid.

2
Put a medium (9- to 10-in/23- to 25-cm) nonstick skillet
over medium-low heat and arrange the pancetta slices in the pan. Cook the pancetta until crisp and lightly browned, 6 to 8 minutes, flipping once or twice. Transfer to a paper towel–lined plate. Add the butter to the pan, and as soon as it melts, add the ginger and stir to soften it slightly in the butter, about 30 seconds. Remove the pan from the heat and add the maple syrup. Stir well.

3
Lift the kale
from the strainer, squeezing one more time to release excess moisture, and add to the pan with the maple-ginger butter. Put the pan back over mediumlow heat and toss the greens until well coated and slightly warmed, 30 seconds to 1 minute. Remove the pan from the heat, taste, and season very lightly with salt. Crumble the pancetta over the greens. Toss briefly to mix and transfer to a serving platter. Alternatively, transfer the greens to individual plates and crumble the pancetta over the top. Serve with the lemon wedges.

Serves 2

Quick fava beans—that’s an oxymoron, as my friend Debbie likes to say. It’s true that shelling fava beans and then blanching them to remove their outer skin is time-consuming. And after all that, you wind up with a very small pile of beans, though you started with an impressive pile of gangly pods. These are probably reasons enough not to include fava beans in this book, except that I love them! (And, of course, if you do come across some, you’ll want to know what to do with them.) They are about as fresh and green as it gets, and the nutty flavor is incomparable.

To make things easier, I’ve suggested a simple and tasty preparation for them (they only spend a minute or so in a sauté pan after blanching and peeling). I’ve also suggested a way to stretch this dish—serving it on toasted bread—if you want to share your fava beans with more than one person. The favas-on-crostini option makes a nice appetizer, too.

Occasionally, you’ll find shelled favas in specialty groceries, and this saves a little time (although they’re not as fresh). Otherwise, just relax and give in to the peaceful pleasure of shucking and peeling, or enlist the help of a young sous-chef to do this while you fix the rest of dinner. I probably don’t have to tell you that you could sip a nice glass of Chianti while you’re prepping.

2¼ TSP KOSHER SALT

2 LB/910 G FAVA BEANS IN THE POD

4 SLICES BAGUETTE
(about ½ in/1.25 cm thick and 3 in/7.5 cm long; optional)

EXTRA-VIRGIN OLIVE OIL
for brushing the bread (optional)

2 TBSP UNSALTED BUTTER

¹
/
₃
CUP/35 G THINLY SLICED SHALLOTS

½ TSP SHERRY VINEGAR

2 TBSP CHOPPED FRESH MINT

3 TBSP FINELY GRATED PARMIGIANO-REGGIANO

1
Fill a large saucepan
halfway with water and 2 tsp of the salt. Bring the water to a boil. Put a few cups of ice in a medium mixing bowl and fill the bowl with cold water. Set a hand-held mesh strainer near the stove. Shuck the favas (remove the beans from their long, bulky pods). Put all of the favas in the boiling water and start timing immediately.

2
Cook the favas
for 2 minutes if all of the beans are small, or 3 minutes if some or all of the beans are older and bigger. Turn off the heat, use the mesh strainer to transfer the favas to the ice-water bath, and let sit for a minute or two. Drain the ice water. Remove the outer coating of each fava by pinching one end of the bean and popping or slipping the bean out of the skin. (The two halves of the bean will separate.)

3
If serving on crostini
, brush the top of each baguette slice with about ¼ tsp olive oil and grill or broil until lightly golden.

4
In a medium (9- to 10-in/23- to 25-cm) nonstick skillet
, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the shallots and cook, stirring, until the shallots are softened and lightly browned (don’t brown too much, as they become bitter), about 2 minutes. Add the fava beans and the remaining ¼ tsp salt and cook, stirring, just until the fava beans are heated through, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the sherry vinegar and toss the beans. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in 1½ Tbsp of the mint and 2½ Tbsp of the Parmigiano.

5
Transfer the favas
to a serving dish or dinner plates or pile them loosely over and around the grilled bread. Garnish with the remaining ½ Tbsp mint and ½ Tbsp Parmigiano. Serve warm.

Serves 2 or, with crostini, 4

I first made this salad with potatoes that had literally been pulled from the ground (at Morning Glory Farm on Martha’s Vineyard) that morning. I also had some fresh peas, and the two seemed made for each other. I made a dressing that’s a riff on one my friend and potato guru Molly Stevens makes for a lemony potato salad. She lightens her mayonnaise with lightly whipped cream; mine has Greek yogurt (and lime zest) instead.

I loved this salad the first time I made it, and I still do. To save time, you can quick-chill the potatoes in the fridge for 20 minutes before you mix them with the dressing. If you’re not in a rush, you can let them cool gradually at room temperature. Either way, if you get the potatoes going first, you can easily make the dressing in the time it takes for the potatoes to cook and cool.

This salad has a really lively flavor (thanks to lots of lime) that would pair well with a grilled, butterflied leg of lamb with a spice rub on it. But it’s a perfect potluck dish!

One note: I have found that when doubling the recipe, I need slightly more dressing than a double amount, so add an extra tablespoon each of mayo and yogurt.

1 LB/455 G BABY YUKON GOLD POTATOES,
quartered or cut into sixths for similarly sized pieces

2½ TSP KOSHER SALT,
and more if needed

1 LB/455 G FRESH PEAS IN THE POD,
shelled (yielding 1 cup/140 g peas)

¹
/
₃
CUP/65 G MAYONNAISE

¼ CUP/55 G THICK GREEK-STYLE YOGURT
(full fat or 2%)

1 TSP LOOSELY PACKED FINELY GRATED LIME ZEST
(from about 1 lime)

½ TSP FRESH LIME JUICE

¼ CUP/20 G SLICED SCALLIONS
(white and light green parts)

3 TBSP THINLY SLICED FRESH MINT LEAVES

FRESHLY GROUND BLACK PEPPER

1
Put the potatoes
and 2 tsp of the salt in a large saucepan and cover with plenty of water. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer, and cook until almost tender, about 10 minutes. Add the peas and cook for 2 to 3 minutes more. Drain the potatoes and peas carefully in a colander and rinse them gently with cool water for a few minutes. Spread the potatoes and peas out on a small rimmed sheet pan and refrigerate for 20 minutes to cool.

2
Meanwhile
, whisk the mayonnaise, yogurt, lime zest, and lime juice in a medium mixing bowl. Add the cooled potatoes and peas, the scallions, 2 Tbsp of the mint, the remaining ½ tsp salt, and several grinds of fresh pepper. Mix gently but thoroughly with a silicone spatula. Taste and add a little more salt, if desired. Garnish with the remaining 1 Tbsp of mint.

Serves 4

For impromptu entertaining on a summer evening, this is your salad, your side dish, your everything. So just throw some steaks on the grill and you’re all set. Or even better, start a beer-can chicken roasting on the grill while you make this salad. It will take you a little bit of time to prep the vegetables, but prepared pesto (preferably a good one from the farmers’ market or one made locally) is a time-saver here. Actually, if you’re not in the mood to make your own pesto over the summer, you should do a taste comparison of several brands to find your “house” pesto. That may seem kind of crazy—buying several and tasting them side by side—but you will be blown away by the differences. Some of the national brands are, well, to be polite, not good. Some are overly salty, some have no basil flavor (if you get stuck with one of those, just add more fresh basil to this salad). But more often these days, you can find good locally made pesto in neighborhood and farmers’ markets.

You may not be in the habit of using whole or torn herb leaves in a salad, but with basil, in particular, larger pieces give you a welcome burst of flavor without the bitterness that comes when basil is chopped too much (especially with a dull knife). I like the mozzarella balls that are about the size of a large cherry tomato, because when quartered, they make nice little bite-size wedges. But you can certainly use any fresh mozzarella and cut it into appropriately sized pieces. If you can’t find yellow wax beans or snap peas, you can substitute green beans (fresh, slim ones, please) for either.

KOSHER SALT

8 OZ/225 G YELLOW WAX BEANS,
trimmed and halved lengthwise

8 OZ/225 G SUGAR SNAP PEAS,
tails removed

8 OZ/225 G SMALL RED AND YELLOW CHERRY TOMATOES OR GRAPE TOMATOES,
halved

6 OZ/170 G MINI–MOZZARELLA BALLS
(1 in/2.5 cm), quartered

¼ CUP/60 ML PREPARED BASIL PESTO

1 TSP WHITE BALSAMIC VINEGAR

½ TSP FRESH LEMON JUICE,
and more if needed

1 TBSP EXTRA-VIRGIN OLIVE OIL

¹
/
₃
CUP/45 G TOASTED PINE NUTS
(see tip on
page 36
)

20 TO 30 LARGE FRESH BASIL LEAVES,
torn into smaller pieces

FRESHLY GROUND BLACK PEPPER

1
Fill a large saucepan
two-thirds full with water and add 2 tsp salt. Arrange a few layers of dish towels on a work surface or a sheet pan to drain the beans and peas. Add the beans to the boiling water and begin timing immediately. Boil until the beans are tender to the bite, 4 to 8 minutes. (Begin tasting after 4 minutes; the timing varies greatly, depending on the age of the beans and how quickly your burner returns the water to a boil.) Use tongs to lift the beans out of the water and spread them out on the towels to let them cool and to let excess moisture evaporate. Put the snap peas in the boiling water and cook until they’re bright green and just slightly softened, about 2 minutes. Drain on towels and let cool.

2
Season both the tomatoes
and the mozzarella with a pinch or two of salt. Put them in a large mixing bowl and add the wax beans, snap peas, and ¾ tsp salt. In a small bowl, whisk together the pesto, vinegar, ½ tsp lemon juice, and olive oil. Pour over the vegetables and mix and toss well. Add the pine nuts and basil and season with several grinds of fresh pepper. Toss well and let the vegetables sit for 5 to 10 minutes. Toss again and taste, adding more salt, pepper, or lemon juice as needed.