chelsea'srecipes

1 large bunch spinach, washed and trimmed, but not well drained (see
note below)
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup Pecorino cheese (I usually use 3/4 to 1 cup)
1-2 cloves fresh garlic, peeled and coarsely chopped (I use more, but
you could leave it out)
2 T fresh parsley, or 2 t dried (I like 1/2 cup, or substitute with
fresh basil)
1/4 cup almonds (I always leave this out - adds some crunch, but not
much flavour)
salt and pepper to taste
pasta (I like linguine, but anything works well)

Put your pasta on to cook. Put all other ingredients, except the
spinach, into a food processor. Put the spinach in a pot with no
additional water. Cover with a tight-fitting lid, and cook over high
heat until just wilted. Dump contents of spinach pot into the food
processor and blitz until all nicely chopped (not too fine) and blended.
The mixture may be quite thick, depending on how big your bunch of
spinach was. If you want to thin it down, add some of the hot cooking
water from the pasta, until you're happy with the consistency, but it
should never be runny. Serve immediately. You can refrigerate or
freeze leftovers, as it reheats pretty well. If you feel like it, you
can pep it up with some bacon, feta, olives, roasted tomatoes or
whatever else takes your fancy.

Note: I almost always make this with Swiss chard, and not spinach, as it
is more readily available here (ie we grow it in the garden!) If it is
young, I don't bother trimming the stalks (and I wouldn't bother with
spinach stalks either). For older/tougher chard stalks, I usually chop
them fine and either save them to cook up with another dish, or - more
usually - boil or fry them up gently (depends on my mood and energy
levels) and chuck them into the food processor with everything else.
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