blue artichoke

Last week I asked GC to name a country, any country. I was flipping through International Cooking, a cookbook assembled by "The International Women of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia," which I long ago pilfered from my mom, as she recently reminded me. "Portugal," he said. However international the ladies of Riyadh were in 1984, they were not Portuguese. GC's second choice was Belgium. The Belgian recipe, though a funny title (Waterzooi) written in a stylish font, is a soup unappealing in 80 degree weather. We'll try it in the fall; for now we'll keep with the more tropical countries. I turned to my recipe collection for something from Portugal, and found a recipe called Spicy Portuguese Bowl -- which also turned out to be a soup. Ah well. This recipe, in hindsight, is more Brazilian Portuguese than Portugal Portuguese. I don't think collard greens are so popular on the Iberian Peninsula. They aren't even that popular in mid-Missouri, at least not at the grocery stores. I had to substitute spinach, grudgingly prolonging my thirty years of remaining collard-free.

Spicy Portuguese Bowl

I subbed spinach for the collards, cheddar-jalapeno sausages for the chorizo and Great Northern beans for the navy. Added the dried fettuccine after bringing the broth to a boil; noodles were fully cooked by the end. Easy to make, super easy! And spicy, whoohoo – I gave most of my sausage to GC. I'm a wimp. Served with cornbread.

1 pound collard greens
1/2 pound chorizo or spicy sausage, cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices
3 cups chopped onion
6 garlic cloves, chopped
4 (16-ounce) cans fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1 (15-ounce) can navy beans, drained
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
4 cups hot cooked fettuccine (about 8 ounces uncooked pasta)

Remove stems from collard greens. Wash and pat dry; cut crosswise into 1-inch-wide strips.

Cook the sausage in a large Dutch oven over medium heat until browned. Remove sausage from pan with a slotted spoon, reserving sausage drippings. Add onion and garlic to drippings in pan, and sauté for 5 minutes or until tender. Add greens, sausage, and broth, and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 25 minutes or until greens are tender. Add beans and pepper, and cook 10 minutes. Place pasta in each of 6 large bowls, and top with broth mixture.

Yield: 6 servings (serving size: 2/3 cup pasta and 1 2/3 cups broth mixture)

CALORIES 386 (26% from fat); FAT 11.2g (sat 4g,mono 5.2g,poly 1.4g); PROTEIN 19.4g; CHOLESTEROL 23mg; CALCIUM 204mg; SODIUM 1033mg; FIBER 6.7g; IRON 3.8mg; CARBOHYDRATE 52.9g

Cooking Light, MARCH 1999

Getting to Know All About You: Have you ever been scammed?