Forget the sugar, Mary Poppins. It’s a spoonful of bacon that helps that medicine go down. At least when it comes to medications such as spinach, cabbage and kale.
A little bacon adds so much flavor that, once in a while, I just have to indulge my bacon-tooth. I use it as seasoning. Rather than making it the main event by stacking it up next to scrambled eggs or making it a sandwich star, I use it as a flavor enhancer for vegetables and salads.
Brussels sprouts are a good example. I love these tightly rolled miniature heads of cabbage plain and simple–blanched, drained and splashed with a little balsamic vinegar and freshly ground black pepper. But if I want to make them the entree for a little evening meal, I jazz them up with bacon. Proportionately, I use a small amount of bacon, five slices for 2 generous pounds of Brussels sprouts. It’s enough bacon to boost up the flavors and round out the sprouts’ sharp edges.
Cook them as usual, but while they’re boiling to tender-crisp perfection, cook the bacon in a large skillet (always start cooking the bacon in a cold skillet). When the bacon is crisp, place it on paper towels and pour off most of the bacon fat from the pan (I leave 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons in the pan). Drain Brussels sprouts and chop or crumble bacon. To the bit of fat in the skillet, add 1 1/2 teaspoons caraway seed, 1 teaspoon sugar, the drained sprouts and bacon. Once everything has heated through, about 4 minutes on medium-high heat, I sprinkle in red wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar–about 1 tablespoon. Season with freshly ground black pepper and, if desired, a little salt.
At five servings, that’s about one piece of bacon per person. Accompanied by cooked brown rice and a salad, it makes a dandy little evening meal that’s so delicious even a vegetable-hater couldn’t resist.
Kale, spinach, mustard greens, turnip greens and broccoli rabe also cozy up taste-wise to bacon. Or try crumbled bacon scattered on a mixed lettuce or spinach salad. A BLT salad is one of my favorite decadent entrees when I have surprise lunch guests.
FARFALLE WITH TOMATO AND BACON
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Yield: 2 servings
1/2 pound farfalle (bow-tie pasta)
4 thick slices bacon, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch strips
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 tomatoes, diced
2 tablespoons water
Pinch red pepper flakes
Salt to taste
1/3 cup finely chopped parsley leaves
1 tablespoon chopped basil
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Freshly ground pepper
1. Cook pasta in large pot of lightly salted boiling water according to package directions; drain.
2. Cook bacon in large skillet over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until crisp. Drain on paper towels. Pour off all but 1 tablespoon bacon fat; add oil and onions. Cook, stirring frequently, until golden brown and softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in tomatoes, water, pepper flakes and salt to taste. Cook 5 minutes.
3. Add parsley, basil, bacon and pasta; cook until heated through. Remove from heat. Toss with cheese. Season to taste with pepper.
Note: Substituting turkey bacon or Canadian bacon will reduce fat and calories.
Nutrition information per serving:
Calories ………… 655 Fat ……….. 21 g Saturated fat .. 5 g
% calories from fat .. 29 Cholesterol .. 13 mg Sodium …… 330 mg
B.L.T. SALAD
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 40 minutes
Yield: 4 main-course servings
Adapted from “1996 Best of Food and Wine Book.”
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh basil, plus whole leaves for garnish
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1/4 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper
2 tomatoes, seeded, diced
4 to 8 thick slices bacon, cut crosswise into 3/4-inch strips
4 cups mixed baby lettuces, including radicchio, endive
Garlic potatoes:
2 tablespoons olive oil
8 large cloves garlic, unpeeled
1 pound new potatoes, quartered, sliced crosswise 3/8-inch thick
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt or to taste
Freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup finely chopped sweet onion, optional
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese, optional
1. Combine olive oil, chopped basil, vinegar, salt and pepper. Toss tomatoes with 1 tablespoon dressing; set aside. Cook bacon in medium skillet over medium heat until crisp. Drain on paper towels.
2. For potatoes, heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in heavy 12-inch skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden, about 5 minutes. Add potatoes and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until golden brown and tender, about 25 minutes. Use potatoes in salad either warm or at room temperature. Peel garlic before serving or prompt guests to use their forks to squish out the creamy garlic.
3. Toss lettuce with remaining dressing and arrange on 4 plates. Scatter bacon and potatoes on top. Sprinkle onion and blue cheese on top. Scatter marinated tomatoes and basil leaves over the salad and serve.
Note: To reduce fat and calories, substitute turkey bacon or Canadian bacon for the regular bacon.
Nutrition information per serving:
Calories ………… 475 Fat ………… 32 g Saturated fat .. 8 g
% calories from fat .. 59 Cholesterol … 25 mg Sodium …… 525 mg
MAPLE MUSTARD-GLAZED CANADIAN BACON
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 9 minutes
Yield: 8 servings
1 tablespoon plus 1 1/2 teaspoons Dijon-style mustard
2 teaspoons maple syrup
Ground red pepper to taste
3/4 pound thinly sliced
Canadian bacon
1. Heat broiler. Stir togther mustard, syrup and red pepper in small bowl. Arrange bacon in single layer on jellyroll pan. Generously brush 1 side of each slice with glaze.
2. Broil 2 to 4 minutes; turn and broil just until golden around edges, 3 to 5 minutes.
Nutrition information per serving:
Calories …………. 75 Fat ………… 3.2 g Saturated fat .. 1 g
% calories from fat .. 40 Cholesterol …. 21 mg Sodium …… 670 mg
THE THICK AND THIN OF BACON
Thin-sliced, thick-sliced or slab–once those were the only bacon choices. Now supermarkets carry lots of variations on the bacon theme.
– Turkey bacon: Pork-free strips that look like streaky bacon but are made with light and dark turkey meat. Makers boast that it doesn’t shrink like ordinary bacon. One slice is 35 calories and 2.5 grams of fat.
– Canadian bacon: Lean, precooked smoked pork that tastes more like ham than bacon. It’s made from the eye of the loin located in the middle of the back. Four slices are about 60 calories and 2.5 grams of fat. It can be fried, baked or used cold in sandwiches and salads.
– Bacon: Cured and smoked side of pork. The fat gives it a sweet flavor. It comes in thick slices (12 to 16 strips per pound), regular slices (16 to 20 strips per pound) and thin slices (about 35 strips per pound). Bacon grease, the rendered fat from bacon, is prized as a cooking fat, particularly in traditional Southern U.S. cooking. One slice of thick-cut, cooked bacon contains 60 to 80 calories and 5 to 7 grams of fat. Different kinds of traditional bacon are sold at specialty shops and some supermarkets, such as apple-smoked or black-pepper-coated bacon.
Here are tips for using regular bacon.
– If you roll a package of bacon into a tube and secure it with a rubber band before refrigerating, the slices will come apart more easily.
– Semifrozen bacon dices more easily.
– Start bacon in a cold skillet and cook over medium heat for the least shrinkage.
– Look for bacon that’s firm and well-colored; good bacon is red in the lean and the fat is white and firm. Always check the date stamped on packages of vacuum-packed bacon to make sure the bacon you buy is fresh. The stamp reflects the last date of sale.
– Pricking bacon with a fork reduces excess curling and helps it to lie flat.
