Brown Butter Pasta with Tatsoi

Adapted from Appetite for China, serves 4
Date made: 2/8/2011

1 box wheat penne
4 Tbsp unsalted butter
2 bunches of tatsoi, stems removed*
1/4 c parmesan cheese, grated
1 Tbsp dried sage
salt and pepper to taste

Cook pasta al dente in salted water with a tablespoon of olive oil.
When pasta is almost done, melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat.
Swirl it in the pan as it foams.  When it begins to brown, add pasta and coat well with the butter.  Salt and pepper to taste.
Add tatsoi and sage and cook until slightly wilted, about 3 minutes.  Add parmesan cheese, mix well, and serve.


"What the hell is _______?"  I find myself saying that to myself every now and then when I go to Hollygrove, and last week I filled in the blank with tatsoi.  Some Asian green or something or other, but it's pretty tasty.

Also, I found my first produce bug ever in the tatsoi leaves.  Another cooking adage I've learned to heed: always wash your produce before using.  I became a little squeamish, but I was reminded of Kristin Kimball's The Dirty Life and the little anecdotes about eating produce with the dirt still clinging to the skin, unwashed, but fresh from the earth from which it matured.  Often we are so disconnected from our food and where it comes from, we don't realize that it is processed and handled to the point that it no longer is the food that was harvested from the ground.  This probably sounds tree-huggerish, but I began to see the bug as a reminder of that connection to the land that nurtured this food that came to my kitchen.  So I simply rinsed the little guy off of the tatsoi leaf, inspected and washed the other leaves, and went along my merry way.  I'm still alive and didn't come down with any GI issues, so no harm, no foul.