Food Notes: 5/12 Leeks with Bacon, Beans, Gnocchi
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We had some bacon laying around, so naturally we cooked leeks.
Leeks are an old vegetable, part of the allium family along with garlic and onion. Leeks are technically part of a subgroup, Allium Ampeloprasum, because unlike other members of the genus, the plants rarely bulb. The leek is made instead of tightly woven leaves. Other members of the subgroup include elephant garlic and pearl onions.
The Egyptians were likely eating leeks in the second millennium BCE with carvings, drawings, and even dried specimens indicating its presence in the diet.
Leeks show up in written recipes as early as 1600 BCE, according to Martha Jay’s, Onions and Garlic, A Global History, in tablets from Mesopotamia. The Yale Babylonian Tablets have forty recipes with Alliums generally featuring heavily.
The leek continued to be a popular garden vegetable across Europe, but perhaps no place more so than in Wales. The leek is closely associated with St. David the Patron Saint of the country, who died in 589 AD, but the Welsh love of the plant probably even predates him. Today the Leek is served on his Saint Day on March 1.
You might have noticed it’s not March 1 and also I’m not Welsh. But leeks go well with bacon, which we had a few extra strips lying around. I searched Google for “Leeks and Bacon” and was directed to this Bon Appétit recipe, Skillet Gnocchi With Leeks and Bacon, to which I promptly modified.
The main thing that struck me was that this recipe would be great with some white beans. It would have been best with some Rancho Gordo Royal Corona Beans, those enormous white boulders, but I settled for a can of organic cannellini.
This dish was an easy weeknight meal, but if I was going to change one thing, I would top it with breadcrumbs and broil it for a few minutes to get a little texture. There was plenty of starch from the gnocchi though, and the flavor was spot on.
Leeks with Bacon, Beans, and Gnocchi
INGREDIENTS
2 big Leeks
6 strips leftover bacon
6 - 8 cloves of garlic
1 package of potato gnocchi
6 - 8 oz of cream
Dash of lemon juice
1 can cannellini beans
Grated parmesan
INSTRUCTIONS
Start boiling water
Finely chop the bacon
Crisp the bacon
Cut up the leeks into medallions
Finely chop the garlic
Add the garlic and leeks to the pan
Add dash of lemon juice
Salt and pepper
Cook the leeks until tender
Drain beans and add to the pot
Simmer for several minutes
Start the gnocchi in the boiling water
Add cream to the beans, leeks, and bacon
Top with grated parmesan
When the gnocchi are par cooked, add to the pot and stir
Allow the sauce to thicken, or add a dash more cream if necessary
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