The Knife and Fork

One man's opinion on cooking (and drinking)

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Escarole, The Mafia Green


Escarole, not to be confused with Escrow, is a curious vegetable. I first heard about it in the Mafia Cookbook and I have ever since been intrigued. If you look up escarole recipes you’ll see methods of cooking that vary from a light, two minute sauté to 35 minutes of boiling. Not to mention that it can be used as a salad green. (The best salad I’ve ever made is escarole and other sharp greens, toasted walnuts, figs and crumbled blue cheese topped with a reduced port wine dressing, – unbelievable). So what’s a woman or a very masculine man like me to do?

Escarole is hearty and a little bitter so it takes well to longer cooking. The method I used tonight is as follows:
Briefly sauté shallots in a butter/olive oil combo
Throw in a few lemon slices and bay leaves for a minute of sautéing
Add washed and chopped escarole and sauté for two minutes to wilt
Add 1.5 cups of water (or stock), salt and pepper. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes
Serve, leaving excess liquid behind.

Notes: I topped it with minced kalamata olives. The salty, briney olives went well with the slightly bitter escarole. Other recipes use garlic and red pepper flakes instead of shallots. I would have followed suit but I thought the wife might show up after Bunko night, famished, which she did, and she can’t handle either ingredients. Next time I’ll try using only ¾ cup liquid and finishing the cooking process by reducing the liquid away and browning the escarole. It might tame it some more and bring out more sweetness.