Thursday, May 29, 2008

Easy chard thing

(Yes. I know I just used this picture yesterday, but it still works so relax.)

Every week I open the farmshare bag with fear because I know that there's more chard in there.

More chard to add to the chard that's already taking up a lot of space in the crisper that's full from the chard coming in from the garden.

I might start having nightmares about chard. Scary red, yellow and green dreams where I am sauteing and boiling and ribbon slicing to no avail because the pile of chard keeps getting bigger and scarier and OH MY HELL!

You know.

If you really do know what I'm talking about because you have a life threatening overabundance in your house, too, or just because you keep seeing these big impressive piles of chard at the farmer's markets - I thought I'd share my new favorite way to get rid of a big ass pile of chard like that *snaps fingers* in a way that is also tasty, fast and a good way to make use of new non-stick pans that were SUPER STICK up until a week ago.

I think I covered all my bases on this one.

Beware though, it does involve some frozen items I've only found at Trader Joe's, but if you're inventive or at all resourceful, I'm sure you can recreate this Chard Killer in your kitchen without too much hassle. And don't judge me for using frozen food because sometimes we can't just be making gnocchi from scratch what with full time jobs and dogs that need walks and just life in general. Ok.


Gorgonzola Gnocchi with Chard

Ingredients
1 T extra virgins
1 package of Trader Giotto's Gorgonzola Gnocchi from Trader Joe's
1 heaping pile (I used 6 gigantor leaves) of chard, sliced into ribbons - chopped stalks set aside
Pepperoncino fino or cayenne pepper powder
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in your KICK ASS NEW NON-STICK SKILLET or whatever and, once the oil is fragrant, throw in your chopped chard stalks so they can soften up before the rest of the mess goes in the pan. Let these saute for a good five minutes or so before tossing in the whole bag of frozen gnocchi. Stir this around until the cheese melts and the gnocchi is tender - about 5 more minutes.
Pile your heap of ribboned chard on top of the gnocchi in the pan. Stir this all around with the gnocchi until the chard reduces impressively in size. Add pepperoncino, pepper and salt to taste.

Serve.

Super technical recipe, I know, but I will tell you that it was good enough to get two raised eyebrows from Bubba (which is a good sign in our house no matter what it means elsewhere) who normally doesn't like a lot of messing around with his treasured gorgonzola gnocchi letmetellyouwhat.

And since it left a big gaping hole in my crisper where the Chard Farm used to be, I called this a winner and went on about my worrying of WHAT THE F am I going to do with next week's chard since I can't be eating gorgonzola gnocchi all the time if I'm going to wear a bikini in a few short months in front of people who aren't my mom and are therefore not required to tell me that I'm thin and perfect and beautiful and a giant ass is very attractive and "in".

Tell me what you do with your chard so that I can stop stressing over the stuff I'm picking up tonight, ok?

Go.

7 comments:

  1. Oh that looks great! I don't know if I like gorgonzola, but I'm sure any gnocchi would do... Right now my swiss chard are still very small, so I pick the smallest leaves when I'm picking salad fixings sometimes, and they add great color to a salad!

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  2. mmm, Trader Joe's gorgonzola gnocchi....funny - that's what we had for dinner on Wednesday, minus the chard, but now I'm thinking maybe I need to get chard at the farmer's market tonight....
    yum!!
    Thanks for the recipe.

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  3. I think I have a Swiis Chard Pie recipe I'll send to you. I've never been brave enough. tomake it but it's a Martha.

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  4. Ok I'm so excited because I got an email from the CSA I want to sign up for that there's space! So starting next Wednesday, hopefully I can use this recipe and make deeeelicious looking chard killing gnocchi!

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  5. Impossible Chard Pie. :)

    http://www.grouprecipes.com/14042/impossible-chard-pie.html

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  6. Jeph - I wish my salads had room for brightening up - right now the lettuce is in such full force, I can barely eat enough to keep it "under control". I'll have to stick to chard in gnocchi ;)

    Ginger - Do it! If you like chard and want to make your gnocchi "healthy", I find adding chard does the trick.

    Vallen - Does it use eggs? I bet it does. WHY? Still, I might try it. Bubba likes eggs.

    Lynn - We will so be the chard killers!

    JJ - I might try this! It has eggs, which I don't love, but it also has bacon which I DO love. Thanks for the recco!

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  7. my favorite way to eat greens is in the from of saag. it's really easy to do:

    steam the chard or greens (not collards or kale, use spinach, chard, beetgreens, etc.) with a clove or two of garlic, a chunk of ginger and a jalapeno. once steamed, puree in a food processor and add oil, as if you were making pesto. fry up a bit of cumin and coriander and then add puree. season with salt and eat with flat breads or rice or other indian food.

    xo
    kittee

    ReplyDelete

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