I have come to the conclusion that there is only one way to eat spinach that respects its pure iron-packed goodness. That is to sauté it briefly in nut-brown butter. It takes seconds using a good-sized frying pan or, even better, a wok-like receptacle. Season it with salt and pepper, and a grating of nutmeg if you like. The taste, as a result of this preparation, is sweet and nutty, and the glossy green leaves, shiny with butter, are what spinach is all about.
However, spinach is a versatile vegetable and lends itself to numerous treatments and presentations that can be extremely successful. Richard Shepherd, from Langan’s Brasserie in London, is justly famous for having created a spinach soufflé with anchovy sauce. I always order it when I get a chance to eat there. Not wishing to be a plagiarist, but wanting to do something similar, I reworked the theme and turned the soufflé into a mousse. However, the success of the anchovy sauce with the spinach is an unbeatable combination that can’t be bettered, and believe me, I’ve tried.
Other ideas with spinach take in roulades, soups, salads, stuffings, and tarts. And one of my all-time favorites is Eggs Florentine. Cold spinach and lemon soup is delicious; the lemon being added at the moment of serving, as the acidity causes the lovely spinach-green to become an unappetizing sludge-gray sooner than you can say “Popeye.”
In the late 1970s there was a fashion for raw spinach salads. I have rarely eaten a good one. In those days it was to be found on the menu of any restaurant with trendy aspirations. It was quite normal to find tough and badly washed leaves mixed with rock-hard pieces of bacon, stale croûtons, a rancid dressing—or no dressing at all—black and blue chunks of discolored avocado, and, if you were really lucky, lumps of old Danish Blue.
This is one of those dishes that is so easy to make and has been abused right, left, and center. All it takes is a few tender young leaves, which the French call pousse d’épinards, broken-up chunks of best Roquefort, finely chopped shallots, perhaps, or spring onions, a scrap of garlic if you like, a splash of good vinegar, and a slug of olive oil. Strips of crisp bacon are delicious, too, as are crisp chunks of fried potato, and, of course, croûtons. It is also nice sometimes if the leaves become slightly wilted. The best way to achieve this is with bacon. Toss it onto the leaves while still hot and sizzling, rinse out the pan with a splash of vinegar, and pour that over the salad too.
2 eggs
4 oz cooked spinach, thoroughly squeezed dry
1 cup heavy cream
salt, pepper, and nutmeg
3 egg yolks
1 tbsp water
1 cup clarified butter (see here), melted
2-oz can of anchovy fillets, squeezed free from oil
lemon juice, to taste
a pinch of cayenne
Preheat the oven to 350°F. In the blender, purée the eggs and spinach until completely smooth. Stir in the cream and season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Pour into buttered dariole molds or ramekins, cover each one with aluminum foil, and bake in a bain-marie (water bath) in the oven for 20–30 minutes, or until set. Meanwhile, make the sauce. Whisk together the egg yolks with the water over a gentle heat until pale and creamy. Off the heat, add the clarified butter in a thin stream, whisking constantly until glossy and thick. The easiest way to purée the anchovies completely into the sauce is to put the sauce and the anchovies into a blender. Purée together, add the lemon juice to taste, the cayenne, and any extra salt if necessary.
Turn the mousses out of their molds onto individual plates and spoon the sauce over.
I call these “dumplings” because I think it’s a nice name, but they really are a sort of gnocchi. These are delicate dumplings, not your sturdy suet numbers, and can be a mite tricky when they are being poached. The recipe does not call for any flour in the mixture itself, just for rolling. The beauty of these dumplings is their lightness and lovely soft texture.
1½ lb raw spinach
4 oz ricotta
3 egg yolks
5 oz Parmesan, freshly grated
salt, pepper, and nutmeg
½ cup butter
20 sage leaves
1 lemon, cut into 4 wedges
Blanch the spinach briefly in fiercely boiling water, drain, and refresh in ice-cold water. Squeeze in a kitchen towel until as dry as possible. In a food processor, purée together the spinach, ricotta, egg yolks, 3 oz Parmesan, and seasoning. Spread out in a shallow tray, cover with plastic wrap, and allow to firm up in the fridge for a minimum of 3 hours.
Using two teaspoons, form the mixture into little balls and roll immediately in the flour. In a large pan, bring at least 3½ pints lightly salted water to the boil, and at a gentle simmer poach the dumplings, five or six at a time, and remove with a slotted spoon after about 5 minutes when slightly swollen. Transfer to a hot serving dish, cover, and keep warm. Melt the butter until nut brown, throw in the sage leaves, turn until evenly coated and slightly crisp, and spoon over the dumplings together with the butter. Sprinkle with the remaining Parmesan and serve with lemon wedges.
This is a good cold vegetable dish to have on a hot summer’s day for lunch in the garden, to go with poached salmon or cold rare beef.
4 tbsp olive oil
2 small garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
4 lb raw spinach, trimmed and thoroughly washed
grated rind of 1 large lemon
3 tbsp crème fraîche
juice of ½ lemon
coarsely ground black pepper
Maldon sea salt
Heat the olive oil, add the garlic, stir briefly, and put in the spinach. Stir-fry together, being careful not to allow the garlic to brown. Tip onto a large plate and spread out to cool. When cold, pick up the spinach with your fingers and arrange in loose mounds on four individual plates. Sprinkle with the lemon rind. Add the lemon juice to the crème fraîche, and stir to thin slightly. Spoon the cream over the spinach, grind over plenty of black pepper, and add a pinch of Maldon sea salt.