Chard Day's Night

Like many people who like to cook, I have dozens of cookbooks and several looseleaf binders full of interesting recipes I’ve clipped from magazines. And, like most people who have cookbooks and notebooks full of recipes, but also have days full of chores, obligations, work and errands, I tend to let the “interesting” recipes sit unused,  while I make the same 10 or 20 easy and adaptable dishes again and again.

One of my favorite fast fixes is Swiss chard with raisins and pine nuts. It’s easy to make and keeps for several days in the fridge. You can play pretty fast and loose with the measurements, and it is highly versatile. Sometimes, I serve it as a side-dish with fish or chicken; others, I pile it on toasted ciabatta for crostini. Last night, with two bunches of chard from LAST week’s CSA haul still sitting in my fridge, somewhat wilted, and another two perkier bunches from yesterday’s brand new box staring up at me like a dare, I made some of the chard/raisin/pine nut mixture and tossed it with pasta and crumbled feta cheese for a fast and easy dinner. 

Did my children eat it? Nope. But luckily, they’d both be happy to eat pasta with pesto every night of the week (which they may well have to, come July’s bumper-crop of basil) so I whipped some pesto up and we all ate together, happily.

Swiss Chard with Raisins and Pine Nuts:

2 Tablespoons olive oil

nutmeg

half a medium-sized red onion, minced

2 bunches Swiss chard, washed REALLY well, dried and cut into tiny pieces (stems included)

one or two plum tomatoes, or a cup or so of cherry tomatoes, chopped

raisins or currants

pine nuts or walnuts

honey and/or balsamic vinegar

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet and saute the red onion till it’s translucent. Grate a little nutmeg into the pan, or add a pinch of dried nutmeg from a jar. Add the chard and saute until it is all good and wilted. Add in the tomatoes and the raisins (about a generous handful*, but more if you want) and continue cooking until the chard is cooked through and soft and the tomatoes have collapsed. Add the nuts (also a handful or so). Season with salt and black pepper to taste. If you want to make the dish sweeter, add a squeeze of honey. If you want a little zing, add a drop of balsamic vinegar. Like things sweet-n-sour? Add a drop of each. Serve hot or at room temperature, as a side-dish, crostini topping or on a short pasta like farfalle, tossed with crumbled feta or goat cheese.

Okay: Two bunches of chard used; two more to go… (and some kale, and some zucchini and some peas and some lettuce… and it’s only the second week!)

*I have small hands; adjust accordingly.