The garden is not only giving us plenty to eat right now, it’s actually giving us more than we can eat. The recent warm weather may have given way to more seasonal (make that COLD) temperatures, but the plants seem to still be going in overdrive!
big bowl of tender lettuce leaves (click on any photo to enlarge)
We had enough tender Simpson Elite lettuce in the greenhouse to have two wilted lettuce salads this week. I like to use the thinner leaf lettuce for wilting, and Simpson is one of my favorites. My wife heats up a vinegar and sugar dressing and pours it over the lettuce right before we eat it. Ok, there’s a little bacon grease in there too, but just enough to give it a nice flavor.
wilted lettuce salad
We also had some baby lettuce from another cutting of the container plantings. Some of these containers have given us three cutting of baby greens, and they’re still going strong. I’ll probably let them go for a little longer, unless I need the containers for something else. I also have quite a few of the larger lettuce plants ready to harvest, so I will likely be giving some away this week.
baby lettuce from container
The overwintered spinach is also going to town about now, figuratively speaking. I harvested over two pounds of it this week, enough to saute some for a side dish and enough to freeze. The season for spinach here is so short, we like to enjoy it while we can. It will start bolting sometime next month. The Gigante Inverno (giant winter) spinach has done well for us again, with large, tender pale green leaves. And Space is always a dependable performer for us too.
Space and Gigante Inverno spinach
I also harvested enough komatsuna for a stir-fry and a pound of pak choi from the greenhouse that had started bolting. I’m going to make Green Choi soup today for lunch with the pac choi.
making butternut squash ravioli
We also used up some of our last butternut squash to make butternut ravioli this week. I’ve been dying to try this recipe ever since Clare from Curbstone Valley posted it several weeks ago. I made a brown butter and sage sauce to put over it, with a few pine nuts thrown in for good measure. Some sauteed spinach on the side made for a lovely, mostly homegrown meal.
butternut ravioli with brown butter and sage sauce
The ravioli tasted divine, if I do say so myself. We used our new ravioli mold, which definitely made for prettier and more uniform ravioli. We froze quite a bit for use later. It’s great to have homemade ravioli in the freezer. It tastes better than the pricey stuff you see at the grocery. I even made some lowfat ricotta cheese to use in it.
straining the ricotta cheese in cheesecloth
That’s what’s going on here this last week of March. For more harvests from gardener’s around the world, head over to Daphne’s Dandelions and see what’s growing!
Beautiful and abundant greens harvests! My lettuces in the greenhouse were taken out by a late and hard freeze in February – so I am in the “waiting for the next round to get big enough” mode with the lettuces. I have a few plants in the garden but it has been so cool they are just languishing. Luckily the overwintered spinach is surging to life and I should have abundant greens soon myself.
The ravioli looks absolutely heavenly. I don’t have a ravioli maker but I may give this a whirl anyways.
Your butternut squash ravioli looks delicious. I think that I might try to make it for dinner tonight. Thanks for sharing!
Those greens look great! And that is one fancy ravioli mold. I like how it has the impressions to put plenty of filling in. I have on that I’ve used only infrequently and it is hard to keep the filling inside.
I’ve made butternut squash ravioli too. It is so delicious. I wish my husband would eat it so I could make it for dinner.
I envy your greens and the longer warm weather you had. We had exactly two days of it one week then it was back to really frigid weather. We have been much below normal for over a week. I really want to plant my peas, but the ground has been crusty frozen most of the week. It does dethaw in the middle of the day most days, but pretty late in the day. I’m just hoping for some normal temps. With normal temps I could finish hardening off my onions and get all my spinach, peas and broad beans planted. It starting to get late.
You have many crispy and healthy green leaf vegetables to harvest. I don’t have any lettuce and containers to grow them yet. But I do have some fresh lettuce seeds to harvest and sow this fall. Your butternut ravioli look yummy-licious.
My goodness, it looks like it’s been busy in HA kitchen! Being able to grow during the winter months certainly has it’s advantages. I intend to get the cold frames planted at the proper time this year to enable us to have greens all winter.
I am surprised that your spinach bolts so early in the season. Last year was the first year that I had a really good spinach harvest and that was at the end of May. I am going to make sure that “The Italian” makes some homemade spinach ravioli for freezing this year. There’s nothing better!!!
You have quite a bit going on in the garden! I love the way you fessed up to the bason grease 🙂 It does make everything taste better.
The butternut sqush ravioli look mighty tasty! We recently made Indian carrot raviolis (Indian spicing, not an Indian variety) but we don’t have a ravioli mold so they didn’t turn out quite as attractive as yours (although they were good eats).
Yum-yum…your post has made me hungry! Good thing it is almost time for lunch! 🙂
Those butternut squash ravioli look amazing!
Oh the lettuce is magnificent! I never have any luck…I hope this is the year that all changes! And butternut ravioli: mmmmmm!
Everything taste better with Bacon grease! Your grrens look wonderful and the Butternut ravioli amazing! I love the mould that you used too. I have 8 Butternut Squash that I need to use up..hmm…
When shall I be over for dinner??
(Now I want a ravioli maker.)
On second thought I may try that recipe using wonton wrappers instead. It looks so hearty and I love anything that can go in the freezer for another day.
My wife is very jealous of your ravioli maker…sounds delicious, especially with the sage sauce.
Wow the greens are really impressive. I just bought some looseleaf lettuce at the supermarket – $2 for a wilty head with minimal flavor – while I wait for the first lettuce. Last year I was giving away grocery bags of lettuce that overwintered. I know you’re south of me (Ohio River Valley I’m guessing) but my greens are way behind. Those containers sound better all the time.