There are just a few more baggies of frozen veggies left from last summer's CSA. Atlthough at one point last year it seemed like we were drowning in greens, and I wondered if we could possibly ever eat them all, when I prepared last night's dinner I found only two servings left. I used one of these to make a recipe from an old favorite: The Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home.
I minced and sauteed a clove of garlic, then added the slightly thawed greens, salt, pepper and a bit of nutmeg. I kept the saucepan on low and occasionally stirred the mix to keep it from sticking while the pasta water boiled. Once I put the pasta into the pot, I put the ricotta (about 1 cup) into the blender along with the greens and garlic mix. It was difficult to blend these two things together, even though the greens had been chopped before they were frozen. I had to continually stop, stir, and remix. Even so, I ended up with more of a blob than a sauce, which was very tough to mix with the cooked pasta. Eventually, I gave up trying, and just served it. I ended up with a great green glob with a few penne pasta noodles stuck to it on my plate. It might have worked better to have added some of the pasta liquid to the blender to make the mix smoother and more like a sauce. We topped our pasta with some diced tomatoes and shredded parmesan cheese. We had some fresh baked Italian herb bread as a side, and enjoyed some of our homemade Chardonnay with it. We have noticed that the Chardonnay really did get better as it aged in the bottles. The first ones we drank several months ago were not nearly as good as the most-recently opened ones.
This seemed like more of a summer meal, as the "sauce" was not hot, and the food really cooled down once it was served. It wasn't bad tasting, but given the effort, and poor results for texture and mixing, I doubt I will try this one again.
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