A bouquet of kale

My friend Drew makes great pizza. A crispy thin crust, unique delicious toppings. Even Drew's plain cheese pizza is great. Last week, I made blackberry vodka cocktails and we caught up as he cooked.

Drew doesn't waste time making his own dough. Trader Joe's suffices. And I agree. He rolls it out nice and thin, then starts his magic. One of the pizzas he enjoys making - and we all enjoy eating - is a kale and egg pizza. Don't reserve this one for breakfast. Baked eggs on pizza is good. Topped with grated parmesan, even better.

Drew tosses the chopped kale in olive oil, salt and pepper. (He has put chopped garlic in the mix before, which is tasty too.) He spreads this over freshly made tomato sauce and bakes it for ~10 mins in a hot oven. The kale is cooked and slightly crisp on the edges. Drew cracks eggs over the pizza. Because it is hot, they start cooking immediately. He puts the pizza back in the oven for another five minutes. And voilà!

A bonus to the meal was Drew's lentil soup. He had never made lentil soup before. I love lentil soup. And this was amazing. I want him to make lentil soup every time now. Drew seasoned it with parsley, rosemary, salt and pepper. It was very peppery, very rich. It was the kind of meal where people actually say, "Mmmm." The evening was the perfect temp and we sat on the back patio, eating and moaning.


With this meal in mind, I was determined to make some lentil soup. Today, I was actually excited to go home because of lentils. And kale. Last weekend, I stopped by the farmers' market and got an enormous bouquet of kale. It was emerald and ruffly, tied up at the end. Beautiful. I got the lentils cooking with chicken broth, sautéed onions and carrots, a bit of crushed garlic, salt, pepper, and rosemary. While they were cooking, I cut the "spine" off the kale, then chopped it and threw it in a saucepan with olive oil and garlic. When the lentils were tender, I spooned them over the top. An egg would have been fitting as well.