eating like an author: jonathan franzen edition

Jonathan Franzen's Pasta with Kale-

This month I took on pasta.

Quotes: “This is good food for a working writer: cheap, easy to make, handsome, elegant, nutritionally well-balanced, devoid of saturated fat, private, erotic, virtuous, delicious. I eat it hot the first night and then cold as leftovers for two further dinners and maybe one lunch."

"Boil water in a kettle. Peel the garlic and chop it up. Wash the kale, tearing it into pieces roughly the size of playing cards (throw away the lower, woodier two-thirds of the stems), and pile it into a pot. Add a little water, if necessary, to make maybe a quarter-inch on the bottom of the pot. Cover with a lid. Sauté the garlic (and some salt) in the olive oil until the garlic just barely begins to brown; remove from heat. Add pasta to the boiling water and stir it a little. Turn on high heat under the kale and steam/boil it, tossing it once or twice, until it’s full wilted; pour off any excess liquid. When the pasta is al dente, drain it and toss it with the kale, garlic, and oil. Some pepper may be ground over it. Grated cheese, however, is a desecration.”

Ingredients:
1 lb. fresh kale
1 lb. good dry pasta, ideally Del Verde brand
1 kettle of water with lots of salt
3 medium-size garlic cloves
1/2 cup (or less) extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Steps:
1) Boil salted water to cook pasta

2) Wash kale, rip it into smaller pieces, and place it in a pot of water on top of that flying saucer-looking metal contraption your dad used when cooking hot dogs when you were little. It is apparently called a steamer basket. Put lid on the pot and let it steam.

3) Mourn the fact that your slapchop does not work as well as it does in the commercials and mince your garlic by unexciting, non-slapping means.

4) Cook the garlic in the olive oil until garlic begins to brown.

5) Cook noodles in the boiling water.

6) Remove excess water from everything and mix it all together.

7) Make Boyfriend sad when you do not allow him to put cheese on his pasta. Compromise by letting him use bacon bits.

This recipe was delicious, though I think Franzen might be going a little far with "erotic".


much love,
hedgie