July 15

Pasta with Chard

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• Creamy Pasta with Chard [View Recipe]

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  Ingredients

  • 8 cups chard
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1 pound pasta
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • .25 cup flour
  • 2 cups milk
  • 1 tablespoon oil
  • salt & pepper
  • dash nutmeg
  • .5 cup cheese (grated)
  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice
  • 4 leaves basil (rinsed and dried)
  • 12 medium tomatoes (rinsed and quartered)
  • red pepper flakes

  Instructions

  We begin by washing and drying the chard. In our salad spinner we put a third of the chard. We fill the spinner with water and then lift out the strainer with the chard. We discard the water, rinse, and then dump the chard into the big plastic bowl of the spinner. We fill with water, lift out the chard to the rinsed strainer. We repeat until the water is clear. Then, we quickly spin dry. It doesn't need to be very dry since we are sauteeing it. We place the clean chard in a large bowl and repeat the cleaning process with the next third of the chard. When it is all washed, we remove the tough stems and chop it coarsely on a large cutting board, a third at a time. We also mince our garlic.

  We start cooking by putting a large pot of water on the stove and heating it for the pasta. In a medium pot, we melt the butter over low heat. We add the flour and cook for four minutes, stirring often. This butter-flour mixture is known as a roux. We are making a balsamella (bechamel in french) sauce, although a lower fat version of it by cutting the amount of butter in half and using reduced fat milk.

  We heat the milk in the microwave on full power for a minute and a half. We whisk the heated milk into the roux slowly and increase to medium-low heat, stirring often until it comes to a boil.

  Meanwhile, we add the minced garlic and the olive oil to a pan over low heat. We are just getting the garlic ready slowly while we wait for the meal to come together. The chard only takes a few minutes to cook.

  When the pasta water comes to a boil, we add some salt, and the pasta, and cook until al dente.

  Back to the milk pot, which we have been stirring often. When the mixture comes to a boil, we boil this on low heat for a few minutes. We add a little salt and pepper and a fresh grating of nutmeg. We then turn off the heat and add the Locatelli, stirring well.

  A few minutes before the pasta is ready (it takes about 7 minutes for this shape of pasta), we raise the heat on the garlic pan to medium-low and when sizzling, we add the chard. We wilt it down quickly, turning with tongs often. We add a little pepper and turn the heat off.

  When the pasta is done, we drain it in a colander. We combine the pasta and cheese sauce in the empty pot we used to boil the water. We stir to coat and add the lemon juice, tomatoes, and some torn basil. We add a little more salt and pepper after we taste for seasoning. We top each serving with some of the chard and some red pepper flakes.

• Herb White Bean Spread [View Recipe]

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  Ingredients

  • 19 ounces cannellini (drained and rinsed)
  • 1 medium lemon
  • 1 clove garlic (peeled and smashed)
  • salt & pepper
  • 1 tablespoon herbs (cleaned and picked off stems)
  • .5 cup water
  • 2 tablespoons oil
  • hot pepper flakes

  Instructions

  We use our blender tonight to make this spread, but next time we will try our food processor (and then just half the water) since it was a bit of a challenge to get this smooth!

  In our blender, we put the cannellini beans. We rinse and pat dry our lemon and then zest it right into the blender with our microplane grater. We then cut the lemon in half and juice it into a measuring cup. We remove the seeds and measure the juice. We add the 2 tablespoons of lemon juice to the blender. Next we add the garlic clove, a little salt and pepper, the herbs (snipping the chives with a scissor), and a little of the water. We put on the cover for the blender, and start blending. We slowly add the rest of the water and stop the machine every so often to jam the beans down. When it is almost all pureed, we add the olive oil and blend until smooth. We taste for seasoning and adjust.

  We pour the spread into a flat bowl and top with more salt and pepper, and some red pepper flakes.

• Fresh italian bread