Buttered spinach

Non-'baby leaf' spinach cooked this way was a revelation to me this weekend.  This would serve 2 as an accompaniment to something - it really does cook down to a much smaller amount than you initially see.

2 large bunches of leaf spinach
40g butter
Salt
Pepper

Half-fill a sink with cold water and leave the spinach to soak for ten minutes.

Put a large pot of heavily salted water on to boil.

Push down on the spinach to loosen any attached soil.  Drain the sink.  Wash the spinach again and tear the leaves from the stalks.

Place the leaves on top of each other, roughly roll together and slice across into 2cm slices.

Put in the pot and put on the lid to come up quickly to a boil.  When this has been achieved remove the lid again and stir the spinach around so it cooks evenly for 30 seconds boiling time.

Empty into a colander in the sink, run cold water over the spinach briefly and return the pan to a low flame.  Melt the butter (ie. a generous amount of butter) in the cooking pan and add an also generous amount of salt and ground pepper.

Squeeze excess moisture from the spinach then add to the pan.  Move the spinach around in the butter to heat it and drive off excess moisture.  Serve right away.

Here accompanying a beef dopiaza recipe from Delia Online

Pasta with spinach, gorgonzola and cherry tomatoes

Serves 2

1 bag of leaf spinach (they seem mostly the same size to me)
15g butter
100ml double cream
150g gorgonzola cheese
Handful cherry tomatoes

200g pasta
parmesan, salt, pepper

Wash the spinach.  Get a large pan of water boiling.  Drop the spinach into this pan.  Stir with a wooden spoon and cook for one minute maximum.  Drain into a colander and wash immediately with cold running water.  When cool, gather the spinach up in a ball which you squeeze as tightly as possible to eliminate liquid.  Chop finely.

Meanwhile melt the butter in a large frying pan and lightly saute the cherry tomatoes with some seasoning.  Add the spinach and other sauce ingredients to this pan, and at this point you can put the pasta on to cook.

Simmer the sauce well until it has a nice coating consistency and concentrated flavour.  You can adjust with salt. pepper and lemon juice.

When the pasta is cooked add it to the frying pan and give everything a bit of a cook together before serving with parmesan.