Roasted peppers with Kathleen Bellicchi

Kale

Kale is a hot culinary item right now. Kale is high in Vitamin K – aids blood clotting, protects the heart, and helps to build bones. It is also rich in Vitamin A, C, and Manganese – a trace mineral – helps keep bones strong and healthy.

Kale is a hearty vegetable that you can harvest throughout the winter. Years ago we lived on a farm and always planted kale in our house garden in the bed closest to the kitchen. In the fall I’d mark the rows with 5 foot sticks on either end. Snowy winter afternoons would find me shoveling a path to the garden so I could harvest the emerald green jems – spiky stems loaded with snow. The 5 foot sticks now showing about a foot and a half above the drifted snow had become beacons. Just shake off the snow and the kale is ready to cook.

Kale cooks best after it has been hit by a frost. Funny how frost kills most greens; with kale it is the opposite. Before a frost kale is chewy and can be stringy, after a frost it will melt in your mouth! (when you cook it, as my granddaughter Hailey says, Juuust Right)

Curly kale is the most common variety found in groceries and farmers markets. Lacinato, Cavolo Nero, Dinosaur Kale are three names for the same type of kale, a tall skinny pointed crinkly leafed plant. In recent years you have probably seen ornamental purple kale gracing urban window boxes, corporate office park and hotel walkways. You can cook this kale as well. You can use any type of kale in the recipes below.

Kale does not need to be cooked for 25 minutes; it is ready to eat in 10-12 minutes. Kale leaves cook much quicker than the stems. Pull the leaves off the stems, cook separately, use stems for stock, compost, or discard.

Here are 3 kale recipes. Kale served on its own as a vegetable, the soup vegetables and beans without stock is a delicious vegetable dish, and the soup served with sausage and grated cheese.

Kale serves 2-4
1 bunch kale (approximately one-half pound)
2 tablespoons olive oil
One-half teaspoon kosher salt (or to taste)
1 teaspoon lemon juice or vinegar (rice, balsamic, red wine – each give a different accent)

Wash kale, pull leaves off stem, tear into large bite size pieces as you would do with lettuce for salad, discard stem. * Boil one-half inch water in a saucepan, add olive oil, salt, kale, cover and return to a boil. Lower flame and simmer 5 minutes. Uncover and continue to cook another 5-7 minutes. Remove kale from pan and serve immediately sprinkled with lemon juice or spread on a platter to cool.

The kale will keep its bright green color if you spread it out in one layer to cool. If you don’t serve the kale right away let it cool before sprinkling with lemon juice or vinegar. If you leave the kale in the pan it will turn army green and look very unappetizing when you serve it at table.

* Some days you may need more than one-half inch water to cook the kale. Growing up whenever the water would boil out of a pot, or vegetables burn, my mother would say, “Oh, it’s going to rain”. It is true more water or steam vapor is absorbed by the air when the barometric pressure is low. It usually does herald rain. I set a timer for 4 minutes (otherwise I might completely forget to check the kale until I got a whiff of that unmistakable smell… burning food), if the water is disappearing, add an extra cup.

Kale, Cannellini Bean, and Sausage – Side or Soup
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 leek
1 bulb fennel
3 plum tomatoes
1 tablespoon minced fresh sage leaves
1 (18 oz.)can Cannellini beans
one-half teaspoon kosher salt (or to taste)
one-half teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (or to taste)
stock or water and bouillon
1 bunch kale
2 – 8 inch fresh sausages (your choice – chicken, pork, other)
Parmesan cheese – grated optional
fennel fronds garnish – pull fronds off the stems

Slice leek in half lengthwise and rinse in cool water to remove dirt and sand. Slice leek halves bottom to top on a slight diagonal in quarter inch pieces, use the whole leek. Cut fennel stem off about 2 inches above the bulb. Slice bulb in half lengthwise, slice each half into 3 pieces top to bottom then across in 5-6 pieces. You will have bite size pieces perfect for soup. Remove core from tomatoes, slice in half lengthwise, slice lengthwise again in 8-10 slices, then across in a small dice.

Heat a soup pot over a medium heat for 2 minutes; add olive oil, then leeks. They will sizzle as soon as they hit the oil, stir, reduce heat slightly and sauté 3 minutes. Add fennel and then tomatoes at 3 minute intervals. Add sage, salt, pepper, and the canned beans along with their liquid, stir into vegetables, increase heat to medium high, and let this mixture come to a simmer. Let the beans and vegetables simmer for 15 minutes longer and serve this as a tasty side dish. Prepare sausage as directed below and toss with beans and vegetables as you place them in a serving dish or prepare individual servings on plates.

To prepare soup, add stock or water and bouillon, tip cover on pot, turn heat to medium low and simmer 20 minutes.

Pull kale off stalks and tear or cut into small pieces (think one-inch square). After simmering the soup for 20 minutes, take cover off pot, drop kale on top of soup, do not stir kale into soup, cover pot and let cook 5 minutes. Uncover the pot; the kale will be a brilliant green color, turn heat to medium low, simmer another 5 minutes then remove from stove. The kale will hold this bright emerald green color when you leave it sit on top of the soup.

Heat a frying pan over medium heat for 2 minutes, slit sausage casing, snip sausage meat with kitchen scissors into bite size pieces (about 1-inch chunks) and drop into frying pan. (If you use chicken sausage, start with a teaspoon of olive oil in the frying pan before adding the sausage so it won’t stick to the bottom of the pan.) Let sausage meat cook without touching until browned on the bottom, about 5 minutes. Shake the pan to turn the sausages or use a spatula, individually turn pieces that didn’t flip, cook another 3 minutes without touching. Turn off heat, let sausages sit in the pan 3 minutes then remove the sausage pieces to a plate covered w/ a paper towel or paper bag to absorb excess oil. The sausage pieces will be just cooked through. The less you touch and turn, the lighter and less greasy the sausages will be when you eat them.

Ladle soup into bowls; add a few pieces of sausage, sprinkle with grated parmesan cheese and a few fennel fronds. Serve with a hot crusty loaf of bread, good butter or olive oil, and arugula salad perked up with pomegranate seeds, julienne Bosc pears, pecans, and gorgonzola and you have an unsurpassable winter feast.

On top of the soup you can use any hard or soft cheese you enjoy; a few of my faves are Monterrey Jack – plain or w/ jalapenos, Gruyere, Robusto, or Taleggio.