Pork

My new favorite meal: white beans, dark greens, and good pork sausage. I remember hating all those dark cooking greens when I was a kid--kale, collard, mustard, turnip. We also got Chinese broccoli and other vegetables that made my father nostalgic for his island home. I hated those, too. Then I grew up and went off to school, started shopping and cooking for myself, bought kale every week because you have to eat vegetables. Kale is the cheapest and doesn't go bad fast. It was 79 cents a pound at the grocery store, and it was friendlier than the other equally cheap leaves, the collards and turnip greens. Also the dandelion greens, which I would not even consider.

Two years later, I have tried the dandelion greens, braised with goat cheese and nectarines. They were delicious. The kale, I have learned to cook easily, sauteed with onions and garlic and sherry; it is a standby, and I am tired of it.

Finally I have dared to buy the turnip greens, my old enemy. Insecure, I consulted recipes. (Broccoli rabe defeated me once, until I learned its secrets from old spells: blanch it, and the bitterness dissolves.) The recipes gave me confidence, and I turned my back to them and began to cook. Onions, turnip greens, chopped fine. Most important, the pork sausage, already frying in the pan. Last, the white beans.

Lunch.