Garlic Sauteed Spinach

This is my favorite way to eat spinach. It is robust and garlicky with the perfect balance of salt and pepper. Lemon is my favorite ingredient to top anything with and I adore it with the spinach.

Our last farmers market was this weekend. It's sad that we can only have a market seasonally up here in the mountains but it makes it that much more special when it comes around again in late spring. Every week during the run of the farmers market we stock up on summer tomatoes, beets, kale, broccoli and cucumbers but when we saw the huge bundle of spinach above we had to get it. Spinach wilts to nothing when cooked in a pan so it's a very good way to eat a lot of greens in one sitting.

Garlic Sauteed Spinach

adapted from Barefoot Contessa, Family Style by Ina Garten

serves 6

1 1/2 pounds baby spinach leaves

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons chopped garlic (6 cloves)

2 teaspoons Kosher salt

3/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1/2 a lemon, and the other half cut into wedges for serving

Rinse the spinach well in cold water to make sure it's very clean. Spin it dry in a salad spinner, leaving just a little water clinging to the leaves.

In a very large pot or Dutch oven, heat the olive oil and saute the garlic over medium heat for about 1 minute, but not until it's browned. Add all the spinach, the salt, and pepper to the pot, toss it with the garlic and oil, cover the pot, and cook it for 2 minutes. Uncover the pot, turn the heat on high, and cook the spinach until it's wilted. using a slotted spoon, lift the spinach to a serving bowl and top with the butter and squeeze the lemon over. Serve.

The recipe calls for baby spinach and it's what I normally use, but I got this huge gorgeous bundle from the farmers market and couldn't resist. Fresh spinach cooks down to nothing; don't be surprised at the volume of fresh spinach you need to serve six.