Off- Beet

I’ve had my first failure as a new wife and it reaffirmed my childhood dislike of beets. They really are not very good. Plus they stain everything. The only reason my finger tips aren’t red is because I held the stupid things with a plastic bag over my hand, a lesson I learned while cutting jalapeños (capsaicin doesn’t feel good in your eyes and I have a bad habit of touching my eyes).
You may be asking why I tried making beets even though I thought I didn’t like them. Well they were part of my food share package last week and I thought I’d give them a try. The whole reason I did the food share was to try vegetables I don’t usually eat.
I am assuming there has to be some redeeming quality about beets that makes people want to eat them. All I’ve found are vague claims of anti-oxidant power and anti-inflammatory and my favorite “detoxification”. What does that mean? How is it supposed to detoxify your body? The only “detox” methods I’ve ever heard of do about the same for your system as Draino does for your sink.

Recipe: (not recommended)
1 bunch red beets including greens
2 cloves garlic
1/3 c oil
1 lb pasta
Parmigianino or ricotta selata

Bake the beets in a 475 degree oven for 50 to 70 minutes, until tender, let them cool. Remove the stems and hard center veins of the beet greens. Blanch in boiling water until tender (about 5 minutes). Remove from hot water and chill in iced water, when the greens are cool drain and chop, set aside. Cook the pasta according to the box instructions and set aside.
When the beets are cool peal and chop them.
Add garlic and oil to a large skillet (large enough to hole all the pasta plus beets and greens). Cook until the garlic becomes fragrant and starts to brown, but not burn. Ad the beets and beet greens. Cook until warmed through. Add the pasta and stir until the pasta is evenly red. Add the cheese and stir.

So here’s what I think went wrong, beets are nasty and I didn’t have cheese to mask the crappy flavor. But at least I didn’t waste good parm on a crappy dish. Unfortunately I have a whole big thing of beet pasta. While the beets were soft and juicy they tasted as though they should be gritty. They had a distinct sandy/clay flavor that I could not get over. If I were to make this again I would not add the beets, just the beet greens, so you would get something like pasta with spinach and cheese. (Which sounds really good right now).

Hardware: I used a new pot and a new knife! The 8 qt Calphalon stock pot is great for pasta and blanching greens. Plus it’s pretty!! I love stainless steel. It’s so much easier to clean because you can scrub the daylights out of it and it still looks pretty and functions properly.

My new knife is a Wusthof 8 inch chef’s knife. It’s a thing of beauty. It is well balanced and light. It is a German style knife which means that the blade is a little thicker than a Japanese knife and the bevel is a little more shallow. The curve of the blade is also different. The German style knife is easier to push away from the body using the heel of your hand for most of the power (good for pushing through tough vegetables like potatoes or carrots).Starting with the tip of the knife in a potato and the blade about 45 to 55 degrees from the board push the knife down and away and see how nicely your knife glides though that though root.

Special thanks to: Bill and Libby for the Calphalon and Ryan for my knife (he's a very trusting husband, he gave me a knife as a gift!)