Bitter greens and radishes.

After the long weekend, I knew I had to put a stop to the bad eating.  Burgers, hot dogs, chips, you name it!  It was a long weekend that lasted, well, until yesterday.  I thought the best way to put an end to a possible domino effect of bad nutrition would be by cranking up the nutrition meter to 1000 and serving up these mean mustard greens and tantalizing radishes.

I picked up these local veggies at the farmer’s market this past weekend thinking to myself, “What the heck am I going to do with these?”  Then I remembered I have a friend in Seattle that has all sorts of radish recipes.  And if all fails, my best recourse–of course–would be to consult the web.

Upon further research, I learned that there are a large variety of radishes in this world providing an insanely high amount of Vitamin C (daikon being on the top of the list).  Radishes can also help the digestive tract and are a good source of calcium.  Big win here as this is exactly what I was looking for. A meal of all things good to make up for my weekend of all things bad.

Cherry Belle Radish

Put up to the challenge of making something creative with these red/pink balls of high nutrition, I decided to go the easy route by making a simple bitter green salad with sliced radishes and crispy shallots.

Shallots and Cippolini onions

The bitter greens here are so spicy, I was actually afraid to put the two together.  However, I tamed it a bit by adding crispy shallots which provided a nice sweet edge to the bitterness of the greens.  I caramelized the onions and then allowed them to crisp a little at the very end…giving it a nice crunch.  (See picture on left.  Cippolini onions to be used in a future post.)

A very basic dressing was used for this salad.  I poured about 2-3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil into a measuring cup and squeezed in the juice of half a lemon.  I added a little sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste, then whisked the mixture until it became a cloudy light yellow.  Finally I sliced 2 – 3 small radishes into thin slices and put them in a big bowl with 2 cups of bitter greens.  I tossed everything together with the lemon olive oil dressing and topped it off with the crispy shallots.  (See end result below).

It was a nice little treat to find a floret in the bitter greens.

Here you have a positively cheeseless and meatless salad.  But this, my friends, does not apply to the next dish.  In completion, I made a small bowl of rigatoni in a goat cheese and prosciutto sauce.  You don’t have to say it.  I already know what you’re thinking.  Goat cheese and prosciutto?  Together?!?!  You bet.

Rigatoni and prosciutto in a light goat cheese sauce.

I am not big on pastas, but occasionally I incorporate pastas in my diet whenever I want something with a little more sustenance. Therefore, whenever I make pasta, I always make a side of greens…with the greens being the main course and pasta being the appetizer. What I end up with is a very small portion of pasta and entree sized portion of salad.  This, I find, also helps with the digesting of the gluten enriched quality of pasta.

2006 Domaine Tollot-Beaut Bourgogne

No long weekend of mine goes by without pairing an accessible glass of red wine (let alone having pasta without wine).  The wine helps cut right through the rich and heavy creamy sauce.  We paired this meal with a half bottle (375 ml) of this light bodied pinot noir.  Wine notes: good acid, earthy strawberry flavors.