Spinach! Spinach! Spinach! Used to hate it….was a curse word as a child. Now I could consume this version of it weekly. In an effort to bring some new vegetable options for dinner at my house and after enjoying the Sauteed Spinach w/Panchetta and Porcini at 121 Bistro, I was inspired to add this to my vegetable aresanal quickly. Ridiculously easy, especially if you follow suit on items from previous posts. It’s amazing how easy to cook stuff like this when you have everything you need in house to bring it together. Let’s do this! Ingredients you need are Fresh Spinach, chopped bacon, roasted garlic, chicken broth or stock, S&P. On the Spinach, talking about the big container they sell (pic below)

Start out by adding bacon to the pan and cooking on medium heat until crispy.

Next add the Roasted Garlic and saute for a minute or so to let the flavors start releasing.

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After that add a little chicken stock to fill the bottom of the pan. Add some S&P and cook this a little bit until the liquid reduces by half. Smash up some of the garlic cloves during this process. This is key to the flavor of the finished product. Pic to the right is reduced.

Now you are ready to add the Fresh Spinach, FYI, it is best to saute the actual spinach right before you are going to eat it or serve to guest. You still want it to have a fresh vibrant green color to it. It only takes maybe 2 minutes to cook after you add the Spinach. So what I do is I usually get it up to the reduced stock step with the bacon and garlic and turn the heat off. Then when everything else I am cooking is done and ready to eat, I turn the heat back on, hea the pan up and then add the Spinach. Add the spinach a handful at a time and mash it down to the pan. After all of it is added, using tongs, start folding it around and replace the spinach that is at the bottom of the pan with the spinach that is on the top. Watching the areas that are cooked and uncooked and keep introducing the raw crisp pockets of spinach to the bottom of the pan where the heat is. Keep folding it around until it is all of the spinach is wilted. The spinach will release its natural liquid into the pan and that is fine. Below are pics from raw in the pan to fully cooked. As stated once, wilted, shut off the heat and serve immediately.