Greens Carbonara

Greens Part Duex if you will....

I experimented tonight with some pantry items and cheap produce from the store. I had most of what make up a traditional Pasta Carbonara at home in the fridge and pantry. However, I didn't want to make it as heavy as it is traditionally done and also wanted to work in a vegetable of some sort. I was planning on using Mustard greens for something else, so I figured I could add that into the recipe after I wilted them and simmered them down into vegetable goodness. Here is how this played out.

Dice up two slices of bacon and crisp in a pan. Remove the bacon and set aside, but keep the grease in the pan to make the greens taste good.
Prepare the Mustard Greens using a Chiffonade Cut and wilt them in the bacon grease until the grease is absorbed.
Simmer in chicken stock until the liquid is evaporated off.
While the greens are simmering, boil the pasta in a separate pot. I used Farfalle because I had it in the pantry. Any pasta would work, but this is what I had at home. Drain the water off and set aside. Feel free to stir in some butter to keep things moist and tasty.
When the chicken stock has evaporated off of the greens, add the bacon back to the pan,a teaspoon or so of flour and a teaspoon of butter to the pan and stir until the flour becomes brownish in color. You're making a roux.
Add in enough milk/cream to cover the bottom of the pan and stir everything together. Work out any lumps created by the flour. I added a an additional tablespoon of butter for flavor and added thickness in the sauce.
Simmer so that the sauce thickens and add some salt and pepper.
When the cream sauce thickens, add the mixture to the pasta and stir to combine. You can add any seasoning you like for flavor.



This turned out quite nice with a lovely glass of wine. It made for a pretty easy weeknight meal that didn't set me back too bad. I will definitely make this again when Andrea is here so she can provide some feedback on the flavor. Garlic would have made a nice addition, but I simply didn't think about it at the moment.

Greens

I'm going to make two posts at once, but this one comes first. Andrea accuses me of becoming obsessed with things when I figure them out. Ok, so what? Greens are in season right now. Collard Greens, Turnip Greens, Mustard Greens or any kind of greens. They are the leafy parts that are above ground for root vegetables that are typically in season through the winter months. I have been working them into meals for the last few weeks as we have been able to get them cheap and fresh. We saw an episode on The Food Network about how to cook them that spurred me into action and this is the result after trying it with multiple kinds of greens.




Trim the stems out of the middle of the leaves. Greens are the leafy parts of the root vegetable and this stem is the root system that heads down towards the bit underground that you might also enjoy easting. Its gonna be tough and chewy though, so trim it out.
Roll the leaves up into a tight roll and cut them into thin strips. I do believe that they call this a chiffonade cut.
Heat the pan to medium high heat and apply a liberal amount of oil. We have used olive/butter and bacon grease. If we use the bacon grease, we leave the bacon in the greens for flavor since pork fat rules!
Wilt the greens in the oil in the bottom of the pan until they absorb all of the oil.
Then pour in chicken stock(water if you don't have it) to cover the bottom of the pan and simmer until all of the liquid is absorbed and evaporated off.
Apply some salt and pepper to taste. Remember that as the water is evaporated off of the greens, that the seasonings will be condensed down into the remaining liquid, so the seasonings will be magnified.
Jacqueline also likes it when we use the habanero-mustard sauce in them to kick it up a notch. But your mileage may vary.



We have used this method now on mustard, collards and turnips to great success. Greens are super vegetables when you look at their nutrient profile. They provide a lot of flavor during winter months when green vegetables are a little difficult to find fresh. I highly recommend working them into your meals.