(From: Still Life with Menu, p. 242-3)

Pasta with Greens and Feta

Here is a painless way to slip some of those ultra-nutritous bitter green inter you diet. You can use any combinations of kale, mustard, collard, dandelion, escarole, chard, or spinach. I especially like escarole and spinach together.

The instructions call for "short, substantial pasta," and I have suggested a few forms. This kind of sauce, with tender pieces of onion and bite-sized flecks of greens, studded with soft crumbs of feta cheese, adheres best to small shapely units of pasta. Each mouthful of of this dish packs in a beautiful integration of textures.

The sauce can be made a day or two ahead of time. Reheat it gently on the stove when you put up the pasta water to boil. 

6 TB olive oil
4 cups chopped onion
7-8 cups (packed) bitter greens, washed, dried and coarsely chopped
   (MK used 1 medium bunch each spinach and escarole)
salt to taste (note: don't add too much, feta is salty...)
3/4-1 lb penne, fusili, shells, or some comparable short,
  substantial pasta (cw: I used bowties, great)
1/2 - 3/4 lb feta cheese, crumbled
freshly grated parmesan cheese, to taste (optional)
freshly ground black pepper

1) Heat the olive oil in a deep skillet or Dutch oven. Add the onions and cook
for about 10 minutes over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile,
put the pasta water up to boil.

2) Add chopped greens to the skillet, salt lightly, and stir until the greens begin
to wilt. Cover and cook 10 to 15 minutes over medium-low heat.

3) Cook the pasta until al dente. Just as it becomes read, add the crumbled
feta cheese to the sauce. (Keep the heat on low as you add the cheese.)

4) When the pasta is done, scoop it out with a strainer (in however many
batches it takes), hold it over its cooking water momentarily to drain, 
then add it directly to the potful of sauce. Mix thoroughly.

5) Cook the completed dish just slightly over low heat for a few minutes.
Add a small amount of parmesan, if desired, and a generous amount of 
freshly ground black pepper. Then serve immediately, preferably on 
warmed plates.