I did not take this picture
This is a terrific thing to do with Cavolo Nero, which is about in abundance at the moment.
We eat this with white fish, but if you are on a major diet, it’s very nice to eat on its own.
Cavolo nero with bacon and anchovies
1 head of cavolo nero pp
1/2 tin anchovies
4 rashers best streaky bacon, chopped
6 rosemary leaves
8 sage leaves
best olive oil
1 Heat some olive oil gently in a pan then throw in the bacon, rosemary, sage and anchovies. Leave this to cook gently for about 10 minutes.
2 While that’s cooking trim the ends of the cavolo nero and remove the toughest bits of stalk – less gruesome stalks can be left on.
Chop the cavolo nero roughly in half and rinse – do not dry off.
3 After 10 mins cooking, turn up the heat under the bacon/anchovy mixture a bit and stir well until the anchovy has more or less disappeared and the bacon is brown at the edges.
4 Put the damp cavolo nero in the pan with the bacon mixture and cook this gently with the lid on for about 20 mins. Before eating stir in a knob of butter.
I know that this sounds insanely unpromising as a dish but it is really great.
Love cavolo nero and use it a lot. (It’s great in minestrone.) Definitely going to try this. Thanks.
No, it doesn’t sound insanely unpromising. My taste buds are jumping up and down, reading this. And it’s still early morning for me.
I use anchovies and garlic, sauteed in olive oil with spinach.
What to do with the other half tin of anchovy ? Just grab one at a time and eat, until tin is empty.
Also with garlic juniper berries and white wine a la Diana Henry. I only ever cook this and kale in a slow way like this
Oooh ooh and eat it raw, the smallest, youngest bits you can get, tossed in Caesar sauce with plenty of parmesan and croutons, courtesy of House & Gdn a couple of years ago. C. sauce very easy – mush a little bit of garlic (goes a long way) with anchovies, add pepper and lots of lemon juice, slop in finely grated parmesan and mayo, and maybe a bit of milk/cream/yog to thin, leave for at least an hour for the garlic flavour to develop, then tinker with it until satisfied. That’s courtesy of me, who cannot be arsed with egg yolk emulsions in daily life, thanks. Leftover sauce good in tuna mayo.
But bacon- now there’s an idea….
I have only 5 rosemary leaves, will it still work?
no need to take the piss