Kale. Who Knew It Could Be This Easy?

Spring is here. At least in SF. It's got to be close to 70 degrees here with lovely clear, blue skies. A perfect day for a walk over to our local farmer's market.

There was a nice kale salad in our lunch this past week, so I decided to try my hand at cooking some. I've used kale in soups before, but never any other way.

Many varieties of kale showed up this week at the farmer's market. I got some and then stared it in on my kitchen counter for a good long time. I realized that I had no idea what to do with it. Since it seems very fibrous, braising seemed like a good idea. Then I remembered how we always cooked sausages in boiling red wine before putting them into the tomato sauce when I was growing up. Maybe red wine was the way to go.

It most certainly is the way to go with kale. I don't know if there are purists out there who have a particular right way to cook these hearty leaves, but I recommend that you give the red wine a try.

Once I had the kale cooked down, I thought I'd try two different final dishes with it. I served it alongside boiled potatoes straight from the pan with some of the braising liquid and garlic.

And, I made a pesto-style preparation, by pureeing the cooked kale, garlic and braising liquid in the food processor. Both were good, but I preferred the pesto-style, since I'd never tasted kale this way before.

Red Wine-Braised Kale with Boiled Potatoes

• 1 bunch Kale (or Hearty Greens)
• 1 cup Red Wine
• 3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• 3 cloves Garlic, whole, skin removed
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 3 cups Potatoes, cubed and boiled

1. Wash Kale thoroughly in cool running water.
2. Set a large skillet over a burner turned to high-heat.
3. Add the oil and water.
4. Turn off the heat and add the wine.
5. Turn the heat back to high.
6. Add the Kale and garlic. It will run over the side of the pan at first. It shrinks to less than half it's original volume once it is cooked down.
7. Cook over medium heat for 20 to 25 minutes, until leaves are tender.
8. Serve over the boiled potatoes, being sure to scoop up some of the cooking liquid to pour over the potatoes.

Red Wine-Braised Kale Pesto with Boiled Potatoes

• 1 bunch Kale (or Hearty Greens)
• 1 cup Red Wine
• 3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• 3 cloves Garlic, whole, skin removed
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 3 cups Potatoes, cubed and boiled

1. Wash Kale thoroughly in cool running water.
2. Set a large skillet over a burner turned to high-heat.
3. Add the oil and water.
4. Turn off the heat and add the wine.
5. Turn the heat back to high.
6. Add the Kale and garlic. It will run over the side of the pan at first. It shrinks to less than half it's original volume once it is cooked down.
7. Cook over medium heat for 20 to 25 minutes, until leaves are tender.
8. Put the cooked Kale and its cooking liquid into a food processor.
9. Process until all leaves and stems have been chopped up and incorporated into a mixture.
10. Serve over the boiled potatoes.

A version of this recipe is featured on The Fruit Guys website.

Chicken Picatta

Have you ever had a dish that just makes you smile? This dish does that for me. Gran Fran made this for me and Joe a few weeks back and it reminded me of weeknight meals from my childhood.

My parents were (and still are ) the King and Queen of the multi-task. Both Gran Fran and Joe worked at the same office. They took shifts getting the younger kids (mostly me) to school. Gran Fran would head into the City early (around 7am, I think) and Joe would go in after he dropped me at school (around 8:30am). The afternoon shift would mostly fall to my older brother and sisters, and we did live in a town where we could just go out and play, ride bikes or walk down to the store without too much trouble.

Gran Fran would arrive home around 5pm, in time to get dinner on the table. She did, however, instruct us post-school over the phone on how to prep the dinner and get anything in the oven that we could handle before she got there. This was before cell phones and e-mail, so Gran Fran called us at about 3:30 to get us started.

The only issue was that she was convinced everyone around her could hear everything she said. She spoke at barely above a whisper, which sometimes led us to some odd conclusions on ingredient measurements and cooking temperatures. The best part about her behavior was that for a good number of years, she was in an office with her door closed whilst having these illicit conversations with her children.

Gran Fran and Joe managed to raise another generation of multi-tasking adults in my brother, myself and my sisters. It is both a blessing and a curse. A Claro can get done in half a day what it takes a normal person a full day and half to do. I often get comments when I arrive at work (around 8am) after I've recounted the amount I've accomplished between the hours of 5:45 and 8am. It seems normal to me to finish two loads of laundry, put away the dishes, make breakfast and lunch for myself and my daughter, get the dinner ingredients organized, shower and get out the door. I guess it's a bit much.

The chicken picatta featured above makes for a nice easy weeknight meal. Not much fuss, lots of flavor and not too many dishes after cooking. It's the perfect end to an otherwise crazy day.

Chicken Picatta

serves 4

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 lbs. thinly sliced chicken breast
•  1/4 cup all purpose flour (I use Rice Flour)
• Salt and freshly ground pepper tp taste
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 12 ounces mushrooms, cleaned, thinly sliced
• 2 cloves garlic quartered
• 1 1/2 cups marsala
• 3 tablespoons Italian parsley, minced

Method:

1. Salt and pepper chicken cutlets; dredge in flour.

2. Pour oil intoheated skillet 3. Saute cutlets on both sides until golden and just about cooked through.

4. Remove cutlets from pan; add mushrooms and saute until golden.

5. Add garlic and marsala; reduce slightly over high heat.

6. Return chicken to pan,stir; cover simmer until the marsala forms a nice gravy.

7. Serve sprinkled with parsley

The Day After: Pesto

I know, you've probably all eaten your body weight in treats, ham and gooey goodness by now, but I had to share a-not-so-light recipe with you. It's traditional, I guess, to start off the post-Christmas season with light, healthy foods, but it's so darn cold, I still think we need these stick-to-your-bones dishes to get us through.

Remember how I mentioned that my sister and I made a book for Gran Fran with her recipes and my photos? Well, here is another

recipe from that project, Lasagna Geonvese. I've not made many lasagna's in my time, but figured I should give this one a go since it's different than any others I've had.

I, of course, don't eat gluten or dairy, so I only had a small taste of this. It was superb. You could adjust this easily with gluten-free noodles, but I'm not a fan of non-dairy cheese, so can't recommend anything on that front.

OK, back to the recipe. It was really fun to make. Lots of steps, as I've mentioned before, but the potatoes and pesto really made this dish stand out from your traditional lasagna. I love the colors, too, since it's a little unexpected to see a green lasagna. I do have to say, though, I don't recall when Gran Fran may have made this for us.

I do remember her excellent Pesto, and know that when we were in Italy in 1989 we did have a lasagna with pesto and potatoes in it. Yes, that's right, I (and probably Gran Fran, too) can probably recall every dish we ate that month in Italy. The fried bread (savory and salty) is one thing I have yet to be able to recreate in my own kitchen.

Enjoy a piece of this right out of the oven.

original recipe courtesy of Fran Claro of The Italian Pantry

Lasagna Genovese

Serves ten

Pesto

• 3 cups basil leaves
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, roughly grated
• 1 to 1 1/4 cups extra virgin olive oil
• 3 tablespoons toasted pine nuts
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2   teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• Dried red pepper flakes to taste

1. In blender or food processor, pulse all ingredients, until sauce is thick and creamy.
2. Add more oil if necessary.
3. Set aside.

Lasagna

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

• 1 pound curly edge lasagna noodles
• 10 fingerling potatoes, scrubbed, salted, thinly sliced, steamed until tender
• 1 pound green beans, sliced on the bias, salted, steamed 5 minutes
• 1/2 cup Parmigiano Reggiano, coarsely grated
• 1 pound fresh mozzarella, diced
• 2 cups whole milk ricotta, drained
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 3 tablespoons flat-leaf parsley, minced
• Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
• Pesto

1.  Boil noodles in salted water, according to package directions, drain well.
2.  Blend mozzarella, ricotta, and eggs with parsley;  salt and pepper to taste.
3.  Layer pesto, noodles, green beans, pesto, grated cheese, potatoes, blended cheeses, pesto.
4.  Continue stacking ingredients in the same order, ending with noodles, pesto, and a sprinkling of Parmigiano.
5. Cover loosely with aluminum foil; bake 35  minutes; remove foil; bake 10 minutes, or until golden brown.
6. Let rest 15 to 20 minutes before serving.

Chicken Scarpariello: A Gift for Gran Fran

There was a time that I couldn't deal with cooking things that had too many steps. I suppose I just became lazy at some point. Eventually, I came back around to the thrill of the multiple step recipe, that involves measuring cups and spoons and even multiple knives for different ingredients. It dawned on me that Gran Fran just keeps cooking, no matter how much mess, how many pots and pans or how long it'll take. If there is a recipe that needs to be made, she will make it no matter what.

This year, for her birthday,one of my sisters asked me to shoot and make a bunch of Gran Fran's recipes so we could make her a nice little book as a gift. I didn't have much time, only a week and a half, so I tried to choose recipes that would be relatively easy to work through.

A quick look through Gran Fran's blog, revealed to me that many of the recipes, though simple, involve many steps and ingredients. So much for making this project easy. Though it was challenging, due to time constraints (not to mention that Gran Fran planned a last-minute trip that landed mid-deadline, making me stop my work, so as to not ruin the surprise gift that was to come a few weeks later), I really did enjoy working on these recipes.

The recipes I chose all turned out really well, flavor-wise, I think, because of the many layers of flavor. For this Chicken Scarpariello, the hot cherry peppers offset the sweet fennel sausage nicely. The steps are simple, there are just a lot of them. But, the end result is totally worth it.

original recipe from The Italian Pantry, Fran Claro's Food Blog

Chicken Scarpariello

Serves six

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, quartered
• One 4-pound chicken, well rinsed, dried, cut into 10 pieces
• Salt to taste
• Freshly ground pepper to taste
• 1 pound sweet sausage with fennel, sliced into 1/2 inch rounds
• 4 to 7 hot cherry peppers in vinegar, diced
• 1 cup dry white wine or dry vermouth
• 1/2 cup chicken broth

Method:

• Add chicken to pan; sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. 
• Brown chicken thoroughly on allsides.
• Remove chicken from pan; set aside.
• In same pan, saute sausage until cooked through
• To pan, add diced peppers, including seeds; stir.
• Remove sausage andpeppers from pan; set aside.
• Add wine to panand reduce by half; add broth.
• Stir all scrapings from bottom of pan into the wine and broth.
• Return all ingredients to pan; bring to a boil.
• Reduce heat; cover closely.
•  Simmer 30 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.
• Remove sausage and chicken from pan; set aside.
• Over medium heat, reduce sauce until it coats a spoon.
• Pour sauce over chicken; serve with mashed potatoes.