Greens
Going back to our first batch of CSA goodies, we got 3/4 lb of “greens”. I’m not sure exactly what kind of “greens” these are, but they had a pretty tough and thick stem running through the middle. The leaves were also on the thicker side and seemed pretty hearty, so we decided to saute them instead of eating them raw. I trimmed the stems and roughly chopped the leaves into 1 inch pieces.
Cut, washed, and ready to go
We wilted the leaves in some olive oil with minced garlic, and then set them aside. Instead of having plain sauteed greens, we decided to mix them into our recipe for spaghetti carbonara. To make the carbonara sauce, we cooked about 10 ounces of turkey bacon in a large pan until rendered and crispy. In the meantime, put a pot of spaghetti on to boil.
After it was rendered, we scooped out the bacon and deglazed the pan with a bit of white wine, about a cup. We let the wine reduce until the sauce had a thicker consistency. Meanwhile, we cracked two eggs into a large bowl and beat them until smooth. After draining the pasta, we dumped it into the pan with the bacon/wine sauce and stirred it around.
Using some of the hot pasta water, I tempered the eggs so that they wouldn’t scramble when we poured the hot pasta mixture into the bowl. I stirred everything quickly while Josh slowly poured the pasta into the bowl, making sure that the egg coated all of the noodles. Then we added the cooked bacon and sauteed greens and tossed everything together thoroughly. Make sure to taste and season with salt as needed. The greens added a nice vibrant color to the pasta.
Our version of spaghetti carbonara
To finish it off, we grated some parmesan cheese on top and a few cranks of fresh black pepper. The carbonara sauce was lighter than other versions, but still had that nice glossy, velvety richness from the egg. It’s definitely an easy dish to make, and adding greens to the mix just somehow makes you feel better about eating a sauce made from bacon. At least it was turkey bacon, right? That’s what we like to tell ourselves…
Mmm bacon (and greens!)