Pasta with beet greens, tomatoes, and pancetta

The beets keep on coming and I keep on not being too thrilled about that. The first week we had them, I was virtuous and used the greens as well as the beets, and no one was very happy with the result. This week's recipe is an attempt to remedy the problems with my previous attempt by adding bacon. I think it was a success. I was inspired by these two recipes and, of course, what happened to be in the fridge tonight.

The plan for the beets themselves is brownies, or maybe cupcakes. If chocolate and bacon can't fix beets, nothing can.


Pasta with Beet Greens, Tomatoes, and Pancetta

• 2 tbs olive oil
• 4 oz diced pancetta
• 2 shallots, thinly sliced
• 1 1/2 cups halved grape tomatoes
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 small bunch beet greens, stems removed, sliced into strips width-wise
• 8 oz spaghetti
• shredded Parmesan

Heat the olive oil in a skillet. Add the pancetta and cooking, stirring occasionally, until crisp. Remove the pancetta with a slotted spoon and drain off all but 2 tbs of the fat.

Add the shallots and saute them until they begin to caramelize. Add the tomatoes and garlic cloves, and cook until the tomatoes begin to soften, about 2 minutes. Add the beet greens and cook until they begin to wilt, about 3 minutes. Season to taste.

Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti. Reserve about 1/2 cup of the pasta water. Add the drained spaghetti back to the pot, and stir in the greens mixture. Add as much water as needed to make a smooth sauce. Serve with Parmesan cheese.

Lavender & rosemary

On Sunday, we went out to Destiny Hill Farm for their Lavender Fest. We picked a bunch of lavender, ate lavender-flavored ice cream, and walked around enjoying not being in the city.

Today, because we have house guests coming who loved these cookies the last time I made them, I baked rosemary-lemon cookies. I still had some of the rosemary that came in our CSA box a few weeks ago, so this also counts as another CSA recipe. This recipe is so easy, and so good - I usually find cookies too fussy to make, but these I love.

CSA Week 4

Cabbage: another thing that appeared in our CSA box that I wasn't sure I liked in any form, but turned out to be delicious. We also got a couple of cucumbers, so I thought some kind of cabbage-and-cucumber pickle or tangy salad would be good. I found this recipe for a cucumber and napa cabbage slaw, and adapted it just a little to what we had on hand - mainly just using a smaller amount of cucumber, and regular (?) green cabbage instead of napa. Yum. Lime and cilantro is one of my favorite flavor combinations. To avoid actually doing any cooking, we had some of Trader Joe's frozen barbecue chicken teriyaki, but I think it would be pretty good with fried chicken too.

New home

I've been quiet the past few weeks because my attention has been focused on setting up our new apartment. We had internet from day one (priorities) but I haven't had much to say, since unpacking and arranging is only so interesting. But that project is pretty much finished now, and I'm starting to get back into what I consider to be normal life: cooking, eating donuts, making yarny things.

On the cooking front, we signed up for a CSA. We're in our second week and I'm enjoying it so far, although we've gotten chard, kale, and more chard in the first two boxes. I thought those were winter vegetables? It's slightly unfortunate in that most of the things I like to make with those vegetables - casseroles and soups - really don't go well with summertime in an apartment without air conditioning.

Other than the above-mentioned leafy things, we've also gotten lettuce, spinach, garlic scapes, baby fennel, green onions, mushrooms, fresh garlic bulbs, rosemary, and a couple kinds of cheese. The first week I made sautéed greens with cannellini beans, garlic scape pesto, ginger-scallion noodles with shrimp, and a salad with baby fennel, oranges, spinach, feta, and a shallot vinaigrette, inspired by combining these two recipes. To my surprise, since I thought that I didn't like fennel in any form, the salad was my favorite.

This week's box is in the photo above. Last night's dinner was mushroom and greens gratin (okay, but way too wintery) and I'm thinking of using the scapes in some edamame hummus and/or some compound butter.

On the yarny things front, today I'm planning my first visit to the local yarn store, and on the donut front, tomorrow is donut day and there's a bakery a few blocks over that I've got my eye on.