Sautéed Spinach

Method

1. peel4 min
   washed, then spun or patted properly dry
   spinach, stems pulled from any mature leaves. Dry the leaves as well as you can — a wet pan of spinach boils instead of sautéing, and the difference shows in the colour: fried spinach stays deep green, boiled spinach goes olive
2. saute2 min
   wide pan, medium, oil and garlic together from cold
   olive oil + sliced garlic (+ chilli flakes), brought up until the slices are pale gold at the edges and fragrant. Start them cold together so the garlic perfumes the oil on the way up; dropped into already-hot oil it goes from raw to burnt in about twenty seconds
3. saute3 min
   heat to high, all the spinach at once, tongs, constant motion
   + spinach, turned continuously until just collapsed and still bright green — under two minutes for baby leaves. Add it all at once even though it looks impossible; it loses ninety percent of its volume in the first thirty seconds. The heat must stay high so the water that pours out evaporates rather than pooling
4. season2 min
   off the heat, tilted pan, liquid poured away
   the pan tipped and the accumulated liquid poured off, then + salt + lemon juice (+ butter, + nutmeg, + parmesan, + pine nuts). Season after draining, not before — salt added early draws yet more water out and then leaves with it, so the dish tastes flat while the puddle tastes seasoned
5. rest1 min
   served immediately, not held
   barely. Spinach keeps releasing water and keeps cooking in its own heat; five minutes in a warm serving dish undoes the texture entirely. If it has to wait, spread it thin on a cool plate rather than heaping it