Thursday, June 3, 2010

It's June! Start cooking with fresh, local ingredients

Where I live beet greens are just about the first local ingredients to be found at the markets (after fiddleheads, that is). Make a meal of these tasty greens with this delicious pasta recipe.

Pasta with greens (beet greens or Swiss chard)

1/3 cup currants

Juice of 1 lemon

1 onion, diced

3 cloves of garlic, crushed

1 large bunch of beet greens or Swiss chard

Zest of 1 lemon

5 oz of goat’s cheese or feta

¼ cup toasted pine nuts (or almonds or walnuts)

Sea salt and pepper

¾ lb pasta (penne works well)


-Set pasta water to boil in a covered pot.

-In a small bowl, squeeze the juice of one lemon over the currants and set aside.

-Remove stems from greens and chop into 1 cm pieces. Roughly chop the leaves.

-Over medium heat saute the onion in olive oil until soft. Add garlic & cook one minute. Add chopped stems to the onion mixture cover and cook for 5 minutes. Stir and add the chopped leaves. Cook until soft (about 5 minutes).

-When pasta is cooked drain and return to the pot. Add greens mixture, lemon zest, currants and lemon juice, and cheese. Toss, season with salt and pepper and serve immediately, with pine nuts sprinkled over.

No comments: