This past week I’ve been doing my best to preserve whatever has been bountiful and not too expensive either at the farmers market or from roadside stands or free for the picking from the land.  I managed quite a few jars of blueberry and wild raspberry jam along with jars my much-loved refrigerator pickles, Thai cucumber relish (a recipe for both is in my book Homemade along with many other great {if I do say so myself} putting-by recipes), and pickled beets.

We particularly love beets – both the root and the greens.  After I spend the afternoon pickling the roots, we always have a simple pasta dinner that uses the extremely nutritional and tasty greens.  The bunches that I bought from our friend’s roadside stand were a mix of colors and stripes – we even got one white beet in the group, but once baked, sliced, and pickled together they become a kaleidoscope of beautiful deep pink or glorious red.

To use the greens for a pasta dinner, I remove all of the tougher stems and then cut the larger leaves into pieces (otherwise they clump together once cooked).  I heat some olive oil, warm some garlic in it, and add the greens with either a little water or chicken broth and red chili flakes and salt.  A quick sauté is all that is needed to season and wilt the greens.  If you like, you can add some diced roasted red pepper, chopped grilled mushrooms, or, in fact, anything you like.  The cooked greens are then tossed with cooked pasta – I usually use spaghetti with a liberal dose of freshly grated Parmesan over the top.