Bacon and Spinach Bowties

 I was fortunate enough to grow up with a wonderful cook for a mother, and like all good cooks, she frequently uses onions in her dishes.  Like a typical child, I whined, complained, moaned, and when all that failed to dissuade her, methodically picked out anything in my food resembling the evil cooked onion.  My mom always said I would learn to like eating cooked onions when my taste buds 'matured.'  I had my doubts as I passed well into my twenties and onions held no more appeal for me than they ever had.  Well, ladies and gentlemen, it appears 'mature' taste buds must be issued with a marriage license, as I have now willingly eaten cooked onions twice since the wedding.  Make that twice in my entire life. 

Learning to like cooked onions was not a particular goal of this, or any, recipe.  I had two goals: use some of the bacon I had purchased for a previous recipe and find a recipe I liked containing spinach.  Spinach is a nutrient-rich super-food.  It's rich in iron, which is a particularly difficult nutrient to get enough of (and particularly important).  It also provides powerful antioxidants.  And if you've ever seen Popeye, well the validity of these statements can hardly be questioned.  I know all of this.  I just don't like it.  My attempt to include more spinach in our diet...

Recipe (from Spark Recipes)
4 slices bacon - go for something simple; fancy flavors won't turn out right (and of course, for the health conscious - look for natural bacon without preservatives, added nitrates etc.)
1 tbl. extra virgin olive oil
1 small onion - sliced thin
1 small shallot - sliced thin (it took me awhile to find that in the grocery store!)
1 clove garlic - pressed or minced
1 cup of fresh mushrooms - sliced (button, baby portobello, or cremini work well) (Diva Note: As I am sure you suspect, I had to omit the mushrooms. :(  Hubby is not a fan to say the least.)
coarse ground black pepper to taste
2 tbls. finely grated Parmesan cheese
4 cups fresh spinach leaves
4 fl. oz. white wine
4 servings of cooked bowtie pasta

Start your pasta according to package directions.  Cook the bacon in a large skillet with high sides, tearing the pieces apart as you cook.  It should not be crisp.  Remove the pieces with tongs and lay on paper towels to drain.  Leave the drippings in the pan.

Add the olive oil, onions, shallots, garlic, and mushrooms to the pan and cook them over medium heat nearly to the point when they are done.

Increase the heat to high and return bacon to pan and add pepper to taste and the Parmesan cheese, stirring the mixture about so that the cheese is integrated fairly well (things started cooking really quickly right about here, so no more pictures of the process). 

Add the spinach leaves on top of the mixture in the pan but do not stir at this point.  Then carefully add the wine to the pan.  It may spatter, but the spinach should absorb most of this.  Reduce to low heat and stir for a short while so that the spinach leaves can wilt in the steam from the wine.

Serve over cooked pasta. Serves four.

(Diva Note: I cut back on most of the ingredients as this didn't look like the type of dish that would make stellar leftovers.  And I still haven't been able to find whole grain bow tie pasta.  Grrrrr......)

Nutritional Information:
Calories: 325.3
Total Fat: 8.5 g
Cholesterol: 7.4 mg
Sodium: 175.8 mg
Total Carbs: 47.9 g
Dietary Fiber: 3.3 g
Protein: 12.0 g

Verdict:
First of all, to be fair, I didn't use mushrooms, so this might have made a difference, especially since I love mushrooms.  Anyway, I wasn't impressed.  There wasn't a whole lot of sauce going on.  The sauce that was there didn't have a whole lot of flavor going on.  The cheese melted weirdly, making the spinach very gloppy, making it difficult to get a little spinach in every bite of pasta.  Oddly, the spinach and the onions were the best part of this dish.  At first, I resigned myself to eating the onions because, thanks to the cheese, they were glopped in with everything else and pretty much impossible to separate.  But they were delicious!  I'd be interested in making it again with mushrooms (when Alex isn't around, of course).  But the biggest downside, for such a decidedly average meal, the clean-up was rather complex thanks to the melted cheese stuck to the pan.

I think I'll continue my search for recipes that inspire me to eat more spinach.  Suggestions?