Archive for Swiss Chard
Penne with Swiss Chard Stems and Sausage
What better way to celebrate our last harvest of Swiss chard than by using the colorful stems to make a hearty pasta dish? The flavors found in this recipe aren’t your typical American variety. They’re reminiscent of northern European fare, weaving together smoky sausage with tangy apple cider vinegar and sweet yet earthy caraway seeds.
After finishing this meal, we knew that we had come up with a dish that could serve as a main course, without leaving any stomachs unsatisfied. This is definitely not a lunch meal. It’s best enjoyed at the dinner table, perhaps with a cold glass of beer, a side of brussel sprouts, and a hungry group of friends.
Penne and Swiss Chard with Gorgonzola Sauce
Another influx of chard challenged us to come up with not only one dish, but two: one using the actual greens, and the other using the stems. We like to separate them because of their different textures, flavors, and cooking requirements.
Our bounty of chard was accompanied by the arrival of our potted tomato plant’s harvest, so we hoped to make something that could incorporate the sharp flavor of a homegrown tomato.
Lately, our cravings have leaned towards pasta dishes, so we adapted a linguine, spinach and gorgonzola recipe from Cooking Light 2004 to suit our circumstances.
It’s been too hot to grow spinach here in the Mesilla Valley for over a month now, but Swiss chard is holding on. Not for long, though. The summer heat’s getting to be too much for the chard as well, so we might be making our last Swiss chard dishes until the fall. Let’s make the most of it while it’s here!
Pasta with Swiss Chard Stems and Bacon
When we made our Creamed Swiss Chard a few nights ago, we were left with the colorful ribs and stems. We usually fold the leaves in half and cut off the stems to be cooked separately because their flavor and texture are distinct from the leaves.
We read that in Europe, the stems are often treated like asparagus while the leaves are discarded. Inspired by this practice, we tried to find a recipe that could emphasize the crispiness of these stems. What we decided on was a pasta dish that incorporated smoky bacon and a touch of heat from red pepper flakes. The final result was full of flavor and character, cinching its place as a frequent and favorite side on our table.
Creamed Swiss Chard
This last distribution, there was more than enough Swiss chard left over for us. We were the lucky beneficiaries of probably two pounds of these bright and colorful leaves, so we were quite excited to try a new recipe we found in a cookbook: creamed Swiss chard.
It’s not uncommon in Europe to enjoy warm rutabaga smothered in a nutmeg accented béchamel, so this recipe wasn’t foreign to us. Since chard has a strong and nutty flavor similar to spinach, we thought it would be interesting to taste how this flavor would match up to the spiced béchamel.
Our instincts proved correct; this dish was scrumptious. So we thought we’d share our recipe, which we pulled out of The Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook.
