Roman Kale

Tonight I was going to cook a grand meal, but decided I was more in the mood for just a pile of greens. I bought some fun, spiky purple kale at the co-op today along with a block of parmesean cheese because I'm going to make some fennel pancakes.... that's right, stay tuned for some fennel pancakes...

Anyways, I made this dish for my first winter dinner, and it was met with much enthusiasm by my guests. This is a very old and traditional way that Romans prepare spinach, but I like making this one with kale.



This is what you do: Rinse and mince/tear up kale. Heat some olive oil in a pan on medium heat and brown some minced garlic (2-3 cloves) in the oil. Add the kale and saute the kale for a few minutes (kale does not take long) until it has wilted down. I like my kale a little al dente, but it's totally up to you how long you cook it. Remove from heat and toss in a bowl with a splash of balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper. My favorite way to deal with parmesean is to buy the whole block (it's so much better this way than the pre-grated stuff) and to grate it nice and fat by hand with a vegetable peeler, not with a cheese grater. Toss with toasted pine nuts and parmesean cheese. If you want to get a little more fancy with this one, you could make a balsamic reduction. To do that, you heat balsamic vinegar on low in a saucepan, stirring regularly until it thickens and gets syrupy. This does change the taste of the balsamic, as it gets more tangy and sweet. And syrupy. It's delicious, but sometimes it takes too long for just a quick meal. Either way, this is some good kale.