Do the Irish eat spinach?

Tonight as I took stock of the items in my refrigerator, I started making big plans to have a healthy spinach salad as I pulled a four-day-old bag of fresh, local spinach out from the bottom shelf. I grabbed a few more ingredients to add to the salad, opened the bag and as I started putting it into a colander to rinse it, my heart sank: a classic case of the wilting greens! Now, I don't know about you, but I'm not really into wilty salads. So, without a thought, I did what any food lover would do--I ran to my computer, clicked on my bookmark for the Food Network website, and poof! I had a recipe for garlic sauteed spinach from Ina Garten. I thought since the spinach had started to wilt, sauteing it would solve the problem, since when you saute it, it wilts anyway, but it tastes good. A few simple ingredients and a quick trip to the saute pan and voila! Delicious, garlicky, fabulous, warm spinach. The perfect cure for the wilted green blues.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Garlic Sauteed Spinach

Adapted from a recipe by Ina Garten

This is a great recipe to make on the fly when your nutritious greens are wilty and sad-looking. It's tasty, satisfying, and makes a great side for any meal. It also makes a great meal by itself if you just want a little something. The lemon is key to brightening the dish. This might be great, too, with a little bit of grated Parmigiano on top (ease up on the salt, though).

16 ounces baby or regular spinach

Extra-virgin olive oil

3-4 cloves garlic, chopped

Kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 pat unsalted butter

Lemon juice

Sea salt, optional

Rinse the spinach well in cold water and dry it, but leave a little moisture on the leaves.

In a large pot, heat the olive oil and saute the garlic over medium heat for a minute or less, making sure the garlic doesn't brown. Add the spinach, salt and pepper to taste, and toss it with the garlic and oil. Cover the pot and cook for two minutes. Uncover the pot, turn the heat to high, and cook the spinach for another minute, stirring with a wooden spoon, until all the spinach is wilted. Using a slotted spoon, lift the spinach to a serving bowl and top with the butter, a squeeze of the lemon juice, and a sprinkling of the sea salt, if desired. Serve hot.

Serves 4.

Sempre Famiglia

When I was eight, my family started taking yearly week-long vacations to Southern California. We would drive seven hours from Phoenix pulling an old, used tent trailer and would set up camp at one of the public beach campgrounds in Orange County. Our favorite place to go, although it required what seemed like a mile-long, steep paved walk up from the beach to the campground after a day of playing hard in the ocean surf, was San Clemente State Beach. The first year we started this family tradition, we happened upon a family-owned pizza place in town and we had to go there every year following. The place was always hopping at night with locals and vacationers alike, and it's no different today.

It's called Sonny's, and they serve my family's favorite pizza. It's thin, crispy, even charred a little on the bottom, and is topped with, in my opinion, the world's best tomato sauce, along with whatever else you want. My family particularly likes the sausage pizza, the addicting taste of fennel from the sausage dancing on our tongues. We also love the meatballs, and we usually get a few on the side to share as an appetizer. (Dad likes a bit of gorgonzola on the top.) The leftover sauce can be used for dipping pizza. Believe me, you won't want it to go to waste.

Sadly, I haven't been to Sonny's in a few years, work and distance not allowing me the visit. Luckily, though, just a couple hours north of my very own hometown is a restaurant run by the same family to which Sonny's owner belongs. That one is called Genovese's and serves similar pasta dishes and pizza. Although not exactly a carbon copy of the first restaurant, you can still enjoy that same satisfying, crunchy crust, the savory, delicious sauce, and the fennel-y, tender sausage that makes Sonny's a family fave.

I actually had the rare pleasure of going up there this past weekend with Mom and Dad. And it just so happens we were on the way back from the glory of all Arizona...

...to which I had never been in my life. And I'm an Arizona girl. But California sort of feels like home, too, in a way. And all this thinking of Sonny's makes me want to go back soon--if I can ever make it. I am glad, though, that Arizona has something to tide me over until I get there.

Thanks, Genovese's.

And one more thing: On the wall of Genovese's is a little plaque that reads "Sempre Famiglia" which means "Always Family." It has caught my eye each time I've walked through the door of the cozy little restaurant. Always Family. Isn't that what food is all about? Serving, sharing, enjoying, savoring--with the ones you love. Always.