266. The Fourth Week of Lent, Thursday - Recipes

Fasting during the Holy Season of Lent

Week 4 - Thursday

Noodles with spinach skordalia

I just discovered spinach skordalia and I am wondering "Where have you been all my life?" Why haven't I heard of it before?

Skordalia is a Greek garlic sauce that is usually made with potatoes, but Laurie Constantino of Mediterranean Cooking in Alaska made it with spinach. A brilliant call! It is garlicky, tart, delicious and so healthy. Greeks eat skordalia with fried fish and also as a dip with vegetables. I made her recipe and tried skordalia in combination with Asian food.

Spinach skordalia

Here is my version of Spinach skordalia:

Ingredients:

1 bunch of fresh spinach
3 - 5 cloves of garlic
1 teaspoon of coarse sea salt
1 cup of soggy bread (see Note below)
1 teaspoon of black peppercorns
2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup of best quality olive oil

Method:

1. Put the spinach in a heated wok and cover the wok. The spinach is cooked with the water clinging to the leaves. This should take about a minute. Remove the lid and mix the spinach. It should be limp by now. The retained heat should take care any pieces that resisted wilting.
   
2. Cool the spinach and squeeze it to get rid of the liquid. You'll have a green ball in your hand. Chop the ball of spinach - cut in narrow, parallel lines across the ball and then cut across the lines, ie do cross-hatching.
   
3. Put the garlic, sea salt and black pepper in a mortar and mash them with the pestle.
   
4. Put the spinach, garlic purée, soggy bread and lemon juice in a food processor.
5. Give everything a whirl until the mixture is smooth. While the machine is running, slowly pour in the olive oil. You should end up with a mixture that has the consistency of thick mayonnaise. If it is too thick, mix in more olive oil until it reaches the proper consistency. Taste and add the remaining garlic (mashed with salt), lemon juice, or salt, as needed.
   

Note: To make soggy bread: Soak the dry, stale bread in cold water. Let it absorb the water and become a soft mass. Drain the bread and squeeze it hard to get rid of the water. You'll have a lump of wet bread in your hand. Put the lump in a measuring cup. You'll need a cup of bread.

My first venture into Asian-Hellenic fusion cooking

I looked around the kitchen for something quick to use with skordalia. Ramen! That's it. Skordalia with ramen! This is so easy:

Recipe for one serving:

Open a package of ramen and put the piece of dried noodles in a serving bowl. Pour a cup of boiling water over the noodles and let them absorb the water. Cover the bowl and microwave the noodles for two minutes. Toss the noodles to loosen them. Microwave another minute if they are not done. Drain the noodles. Spoon some dollops of spinach skordalia over the noodles and toss everything together to mix. Garnish with some toasted sesame seeds.

Then I decided to make a more refined version. I used my favourite flat noodles. The boiled noodles were mixed with spinach skordalia and I splashed some hot chili oil over them. Perfect noodles! These are ideal for feeding a crowd. So cheap too. I think it would cost about $10 to feed a dozen people.

Make it for your next pot luck dinner. People will be raving about it! Be coy when they ask for the recipe. Don't give it to them. Just say it is something you whipped up. That will serve them right for not reading Kits Chow or Presto Pasta Nights! Just kidding! Cooking is about generosity of spirit. By all means give them the recipe.

Then I went to town with the spinach skordalia. I cooked crispy tofu and stuffed them with the green, garlicky paste.

These tasted great as an appetizer. I also served them as a topping for a bowl of soup noodles. I might use this spinach paste in lasagna. I have more plans for skordalia but that will be for another post. The possibilities are endless. Try it! You'll like it.



I am sending this recipe to Aquadaze of Served With Love who is host of Presto Pasta Nights #106.

Presto Pasta Nights is the creation of Ruth, of Once Upon a Feast fame.

PPN is a weekly food blogging event that features, you guessed correctly, pasta, pasta and more pasta. Boiled pasta, fried pasta, baked pasta, cold or hot pasta. Do join PPN. You'll find 101+ ways a pasta-loving cook can make a paste of flour and water taste so good.