What to do with escarole: Most delicious escarole cannellini bean soup

“Today is blue day,” Merrie announced yesterday, as she clomped downstairs.

Indeed, the girl was blue. All blue. Bright blue T-shirt. Bright blue barrettes. Bright blue shorts. Blue scarf. And, the piece de resistance, electric blue cowgirl boots that we’d spray painted last October to complete her Supergirl costume. The only other color was a shock of red on her lips from some gaudily applied lip gloss. The effect was somewhere between smurf and rodeo clown.

Blue day started out fun — blueberry smoothie, blueberry pancakes. But by the evening, blue day had made me kind of…blue. Nothing big, just a series of unfortunate events, family style — a playdate gone awry, a beastly (still blue) six-year-old, a tantrum, a punishment, and an hour’s worth of screaming. I will never, ever stop hating you, Mommy!!! Neverrrrrrrrrrrr!! Charlotte, too, sobbing literally over spilled milk. A smelly dog with a herniated disc problem, also howling and sobbing. Runny noses. Too much noise. Blue mommy.

Very blue.

Fortunately, blue day was rescued, rescued rather quickly. It was rescued by a soup, a quick, simple, one-pot, wholly healthful soup. This soup starred, of all things, escarole.

Yes, escarole.

Escarole isn’t anything new; this leafy green has been around for 5,000 years or so. The Egyptians ate it. The Greeks. Ovid mentions the stuff, as does Pliny. It’s a staple in Italian cuisine. But the truth is, this vegetable is relatively new to me.

Like all leafy greens, escarole is a great source of iron, vitamin C, vitamin A, vitamin K, and minerals. Unlike other kale or collards, it doesn’t require too much cooking. It resembles a kind of wide-leaf, tough, homely variety of romaine lettuce – just heartier and a little more bitter.

This soup isn’t anything unique; you can find a gazillion variations in cookbooks and online. But I thought this version was so, so good. Good enough to turn a blue day into something better.

Ali’s Greens-Saved-Blue-Day Escarole Cannellini Soup
1 head escarole, cleaned and chopped
2 TBSP olive oil
4 slices prosciutto, sliced thin (you could also try it with bacon; note variations for non-pork eaters, below)
2 cloves garlic
Small sprig of fresh rosemary
2 shakes red pepper
3 cups chicken broth
Juice of half a lemon
1 tomato, peeled and skinned
1 can cannellini or other white beans, including juice
Kosher sea salt, to taste
Topping: shaved parmesan

Soak escarole and gently swirl in water to remove any dirt from leaves:

Dry escarole and chop into 1-inch strips.

Sautee garlic and prosciutto in olive oil. Do not allow garlic to brown, otherwise it will get bitter.

Add chopped rosemary and red pepper.

Add escarole. Sautee until wilted.

Add chicken broth, lemon juice, and tomato. (If you’re feeling really lazy, go ahead and skin the tomato by letting it sit in the broth for about 20 seconds. I’m telling you: one pot’s the way to go here).

Let simmer for 10 minutes. Add beans. Cook another 3-4 minutes, until heated through. Add salt to taste (you might find you don’t need much; the prosciutto adds plenty of salt).

Add shaved parmesan to the top, and serve with crusty bread.

** for non pork-eaters: try substituting anchovies. Or, if you’re a no-animal type, you try a bay leaf, which you should remove before eating.

This is good. Really good. It retains a bit of escarole’s bitter bite, and is full of flavor, light, healthy, delicious. Blair loved it. Merrie enjoyed the bean-and-broth part, and I’m sure she got a little of the escarole in there. Charlotte liked precisely four spoonfuls of the bean and broth. Then she got a big hunk of escarole, declared “Mommy, I no like lettuce,” and refused to eat another bite. However, her credibility is highly questionable. The girl eats almost nothing, preferring instead to live on love, milk, diluted juice, and Elmo.

But I really, really enjoyed it — enough that I started to feel better, almost immediately. You just can’t say “I’m blue” while thinking “I just made a really tasty, good-for-me, one-pot soup.”

Thanks to escarole, my day went from blue to healthy greens, just like that.