Greens and Pasta--A Fast Concept Recipe

A concept recipe for quickly getting a meal on the table that your family will eat and using the kale, spinach, bok choy, mustard greens, beet greens, turnip greens or Swiss chard from your farm share.

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Would you like to walk in the door after picking up the CSA box and, within a half hour of arrival sit down to eat a tasty meal the whole family will enjoy?  If I haven't yet mentioned it in on this blog [Ha!  As if!], CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture, a farm share program where you sign up and pay your farmer before the growing season starts in return for receiving a weekly share of the produce during the growing season.  It benefits you because you've met and shaken hands with the people who grow your food, and it benefits your farmers because they are paid in advance--to buy seeds or equipment necessary for the upcoming season (link to a photo of my farmers doing exactly that)--as well as lessening the risk that is independent, diversified, small farming today. Use the Local Harvest tool on the blog to find a CSA near you.

The only drawback to being a CSA member, which of course is why I started this blog, is having a ripe vegetable in your kitchen that you don't have a clue what to do with, knowing that loads more vegetables are coming within a week, and knowing if you don't figure something out--quick!--your money and your farmer's labor are going out in the compost, down the garbage disposal, or out to a landfill. That'd be a shame.

 Since I hate to waste food, and I like to laze about encourage my kids to get busy in the kitchen, this post will be another segment of Cooking with Teens as well as a concept recipe.  I first learned of the term "concept recipe" from my blogging mentor Alanna, and it works here.

Not a Clickable Collage--just a collection of times we've executed this concept.

You'll need pasta--dried or fresh, thin noodles, shaped noodles, filled noodles all work in this
You'll need a sauce (prepared or put up pesto or alfredo or marinara or vodka sauce)
You'll need greens (beet, chard, kale, spinach, tender collard, mustard or turnip greens)
If you like, you could add a protein (bacon, breakfast sausage, ham, meatballs, paneer, tofu)

Since my son graciously (?) agreed to cook for us, I've got some gifs of the process and I'll post the recipe afterwards.

For more recipes using greens, please see my Cooking Greens Recipe Collection, my Kale Recipes Collection, my Spinach Recipes Collection, or my Swiss Chard Recipes Collection. These collections are part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me eating from the farm share, the farmer's market, the garden, the neighbor's garden, and great deals on ugly produce at the grocery store.

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stripping the leaves from the stems

chopping the stems

slicing the leaves 

using good technique to chop the pepperoni

Greens and Pasta (serves 4)

Ingredients

• ½ pound dry pasta (or 4 servings fresh pasta)
• 1 bunch greens (chop and use the chard or beet stems, discard the mustard, turnip, collard or kale stems--especially if large and woody--and slice the leaves as shown above)
• ½ cup onion, chopped
• 2-3 Tablespoons olive oil
• ½ to 2 cups chopped cooked or uncooked* meat, or cubes of paneer or tofu, optional
• Sauce (½ cup pesto + pasta water to thin, or 1 to 2 cups alfredo/marinara/tomato vodka--your choice)

Instructions

1. Preheat a large skillet over medium heat, and get a large pot of salted water boiling for the pasta.
2. When the water is ready, prepare pasta according to package directions. 
3. In the skillet, heat the oil to shimmering then sauté the stems and onions until softened (*if using, add the uncooked meat in now so it can cook as well), about 5 to 8 minutes.  
4. Add the leaves and stir until wilted, another 3 minutes or so. If using cooked meat or tofu cubes, add to the skillet once the leaves are wilted.  
5. Stir pasta sauce into mixture.  
6. When the pasta is cooked, add it to the skillet and toss with the sauce.  
7. Serve with additional cheese on top.

Sample Spring CSA box--see how full of GREENs?--with a couple of ingredient shots

This post is shared on Simple Supper Tuesday, Week In Review, What's Cookin' Wednesday, From The Farm Blog Hop, Clever Chicks Blog Hop, Tasty Tuesdays