Kale Kreations

Is it just me or has kale grown in popularity recently? Over the past couple of months, I've looked at a number of recipes that incorporate kale and have made three that were pretty big hits.

The first, Fettuccine with Sausage and Kale, was recommended to me by a friend. First of all, I am a sucker for any recipe that includes the words, "fettuccine" or "linguine," so I had a pretty good feeling that I'd love this dish before I even prepared it. And, as anticipated, it was stellar. Should you decide to make this in your own kitchen, my only recommendation would be to go easy on the oil.  

 

The flavors of this dish were delicious, but I found the end product to be a bit too oily when I followed the recipe as written. It has been my experience that when I cook sausage in a skillet, it creates its own oil from the fat in the meat. I would suggest cooking the sausage without any oil and adding it only if it seems necessary (i.e., the meat is sticking to the bottom of the pan). Another option would be to cook the sausage in the oil, drain it, and return the meat to the skillet. 

The next kale dish I made was Kale and Ricotta Stuffed Shells. It was Eric's and my turn to host our weekly family dinner and we were trying to come up with an idea...something different. Eric piped up that one of his favorite dishes is stuffed shells. I was game to attempt to make this both because I love Italian food and I had never tried to make them before. I had some kale sitting in my fridge and wondered whether it could be incorporated into the cheese mixture. Too timid to try it without direction, I turned to Google to see if it had been done before. Of course it had! I found several recipes, but this one looked the most appealing. 

Something about adding kale to the cheese mixture give it a light, fresh, and airy taste. This was a welcome surprise because stuffed shells can often feel like a really heavy meal. The writer of this recipe suggested it is a great option for a "meatless Monday," but I didn't want to go vegetarian that particular night...I simply added 

1 pound ground turkey

to my usual spaghetti sauce and served it on top of the shells. It was a hit! Everyone really liked it and they were surprised to hear I was able to sneak some kale in on them...tricky tricky! 

Last night we hosted another dinner. Deployments are a part of military life and we are getting ready to see one of our buddies off to Afghanistan for a while. We wanted to get people together before he left so we had everyone over for food, drinks, and a good dose of healthy laughter. I asked our deploying friend what he wanted for dinner and the response was, "lasagna or something Italian."  

Last winter I made the Pioneer Woman's "Best Lasagna. Ever." when Eric's parents were visiting and friends came over to watch a Ravens' playoff game. Consensus was it really was the best lasagna ever, even to my father-in-law who considers himself an expert in good lasagna. He told me the secret to a good lasagna is tomato paste, and this recipe calls for 12 whole ounces of it, so it must be good!

I decided I wanted to try the technique for adding kale that I learned in the stuffed shells recipe with the lasagna recipe. I used the blanching method and cooked the lasagna noodles in the same water. Then, I stirred the cooked, finely chopped kale into the cottage cheese mixture. 

 

It turned out great and, again, the kale gave the dish that same light and fresh taste it gave the stuffed shells. I highly recommend sneaking kale into Italian dishes whenever possible!

 

  

 

Pre-baked lasagna...by the time it came out of the oven, guests were here and I was too distracted to take a picture...

Well, this was certainly one of my longer posts, but stay tuned for more kale recipes in the future. Next up: kale chips. I hear everyone talking about them and recently a friend sent along a recipe for me to try.

Eat more greens! Peace.