Contributed by Margie Siegal
(for 1 person, double or triple as needed)
This is an inexpensive but tasty dinner or lunch, especially if you grow your own. Kale, chard and mustard greens grow year round in our climate, and are some of the easiest vegetables to grow.
Kale is often badly mistreated. People insist on putting the leaves in a blender for some sort of super vitamin drink and then try to disguise the taste. This is an awful thing to do to kale. Kale needs to be sauteed in olive oil and garlic, just until tender. Here, kale (or any other greens you have on hand) is bedded on polenta (the staple of Northern Italy) and topped with your favorite grating cheese. Si mangia! You may be inspired to wash it down with vino rosso and belt out an aria. (Warn the neighbors first)
Easy Polenta: The traditional way to make polenta is to stand over the stove, stirring, until the polenta is your desired density. There is no reason to go to that much work. Grease an oven proof heavy pot with olive oil. I use cast iron; ceramic will work. Turn the oven to 350 degrees. Put a half teaspoon coarse grind sea salt in the pot. Since this is an Italian dish, I measure in metric. Add 350 milliliters of water. Measure 100 milliliters polenta in a dry measuring cup with spout. Using a fork, stir the water in one direction to make a little whirlpool. Slowly pour in the polenta.. Put the pot in the oven and set the timer for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, check the polenta, give it a stir and replace in the oven. Set the timer for 10 minutes. After the timer rings, check the polenta – should be close to getting done. If not, reset the timer for 10 minutes and repeat until you have nice firm polenta. Turn off the oven, but leave the polenta in the oven until the greens are ready. Put plates in the oven at this point to warm them up.
Greens: While the polenta is cooking, start on the greens. Gather beet, kale, mustard, chard or turnip greens, or a combination. You do not need to remove stems. You will need 3x the amount of greens each person will eat, greens cook down a LOT, especially more tender greens such as mustard. Wash well (greens tend to collect sand) but do NOT dry. The greens should be pretty wet. Slice greens crosswise into fettuccine – quarter inch strips. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a pan that has a lid and will hold all the greens. Mince one large garlic clove per person. Heat the garlic in the oil until it just starts to turn color – burned garlic is awful. Immediately dump the wet sliced greens into the pan, cover and turn the heat to low. Check every ten minutes and give the greens a stir. Greens are cooked when they are tender. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Variations: Add sauteed onions, hot or sweet pepper (red bells look very pretty) green onions or mushrooms to the cooked greens.
When both polenta and greens are cooked, spread polenta on each plate, top with greens and grate Parmesan, Romano or any other grating cheese on top.
Photo credit: UCANR