Ingredients:

6 strips of bacon, cut into 1 inch chunks
1/2 small red onion, chopped small
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
1 t sugar
8 cups spinach
Fresh cracked black pepper

Directions:

Tear the spinach and put it into a very large bowl. Sprinkle with fresh cracked black pepper.

Put the bacon and red onion bits in a skillet and cook over medium heat until both are well browned. You should have about 2 tablespoons of bacon grease in the pan. If you have too much grease, drain a bit off. If you don’t have enough, add a little olive oil.

Add the vinegar and sugar to the bacon and onions. Bring the whole thing to a goodly vigorous boil.

Drench the spinach with the hot bacon dressing and toss. What looked like a mountain of spinach has reduced to a perfectly reasonable amount to serve either as a side for four or as a main for two.

Spoon Mage™ Notes:

There are a lot of types of bacon. Some have a lot of fat, some not so much. You can use the amount and type of bacon you want. If you used very fatty bacon, drain off some of the fat after cookery so that you only have about 2 T left in the pan. If you used great wonderful lean bacon and there is not much fat in the pan after cookery, add a T of olive oil before proceeding to add the rest of the dressing ingredients.

I do not add salt to this dish – many of you may prefer it salted. But really, with the bacon it is not necessary at all.

Another option with bacon, is to pull some out of the pan before adding the vinegar and using it as a garnish. It’s all up to you. Make the dish yours!