When planning a garden, you should always be sure to plant for your particular climate, so that you aren't left frantically harvesting all your greens just as the temperatures begin to settle in for a long stretch of triple-digit highs. Now we probably jumped the gun a bit, as it was only hovering around the high 90s during our reaping time, but not only were we working against an unforgiving sun, we were also battling wasps.
Yes, wasps.
Did you know that they were big fans of vegetables? I assumed they lived off of spite and terror and the tears of the innocent (well, some do) and ruined picnics and sugar. But no! They also eat greens.
The wretched buggers were laying waste to our chard and undoubtedly scaring off the friendly bees who only wanted buzz around politely and pollinate things. Also, they made harvesting much more dangerous for The Husband, who is frightfully allergic to stings and yet never seems to have his anti-sting medications on his person. So we hosed down the garden to try to scare them away, then quickly made off with all the chard (and cavolo nero, for good measure) we could before they caught on. And while this did leave me feeling pretty pleased for having pulled one over on the striped menace, it also left us with copious amounts of greenery that demanded my attention.
(It also left us with a lot of rat tail radish that needs pickling or something.)
First up was a garlicky cavolo nero pasta with thinly sliced squashes and crispy beans. I love crispy beans. In fact, I ate a lot of them before they even made it to the pasta. Fortunately, I have come to anticipate issues like these and adjust my amounts accordingly.
For the chard, I ended up making two different batches of chard cakes, which are tasty in both large cake form (with some quinoa and tzatziki)
and in smaller crispy-bit form on top of a salad of shaved pattypan squash and fennel with mozzarella.
Of course, it feels like we've barely put a dent in our greens collection, so more green-centric food will be forthcoming. Can't let the hornets feel like they won, now can we?
[Food considerations: The cavolo nero pasta is vegetarian, vegan if you omit the cheese and use an eggless pasta, and gluten-free if you use gluten-free pasta. The chard cakes are vegetarian, and can be made gluten-free by using gluten-free breadcrumbs, though rice flour would probably work just as well. My version of pasta contains eggs, as do the chard cakes; the chard cakes also include dairy. Both should be soy-free.]
SO YOU WANT IN ON THIS, HUH?
Garlicky cavolo nero with crispy beans and squash
If you'll be making your own pasta, go ahead and get the dough started. My recipe is here (my God, the sister blog is ignored). Cover and let it rest while you make everything else (it should sit for at least 30 minutes, but can easily sit longer—just make sure it's covered, or else it'll dry out).
To make crispy beans: Cook a meaty bean of your choice (I used borlotti and followed my normal method of pressure cooker + dried chipotle). Try to get a good bean type for this, as the beans must be able to stand on their own to work well (as my frequent snacking whilst cooking can attest). Aside from borlotti, any cranberry-esque bean will work, as will any bean that holds its shape.
Finely slice two or three cloves of garlic. In a shallow saute pan, heat up some oil (I used a mix of grapeseed and roasted garlic olive oil). When hot, add the garlic, mix briefly, and then add the beans. Stir until everything is well coated, season with a large pinch of salt, then let cook on a medium-high heat, mixing occasionally, so that the beans fry and their skins begin to crack. Once the beans get crispy and chewy, remove from the heat (keep the little burnt garlic chips, too, as they are amazing).
Wipe most of the oil from the pan, then return to the stove.
For the greens, remove the woody stems as needed (ours was still but a young'un, so I left most of it alone). Wash the leaves, though you don't need to be too fussy about drying them. Thinly slice about a dozen cloves of garlic; seriously, it can take it, so just BE BRAVE. TRUST THE GARLIC.
Add some olive oil to the pan and, just like the crispy beans, add the garlic once the oil is hot. Let the garlic saute for about a minute, then add the cavolo nero. Stir well, until all the leaves are glossy from the oil, then cover and let cook until just tender (you still want a bit of bite to the stems). Salt to taste, give a final stir, then remove to a bowl.
If you're rocking the homemade pasta, roll out and cut your noodles to your preferred shape. If using pre-made pasta, start cooking it now. You will want the pasta to be ready right when the zucchini (see next step) is done, so don't start cooking the squash until just before the pasta is al dente.
Using a mandoline (or excellent knife skills, if you have them), thinly slice a small zucchini lengthwise, then julienne the squash into strips about the width of fettucine. Heat up a tiny bit of olive oil in your saute pan and add a pinch of Aleppo pepper. Let the pepper flavor the oil, then throw in the strips of zucchini. Cook them very briefly, just enough to warm through, then add the cooked cavolo nero, stir about, and then add the drained pasta. Stir madly, mixing everything together as much as possible (this may not be easy), then move the pan off the heat. Squeeze half a lemon (or more, depending on your taste) over everything, along with a few turns of the pepper grinder. Plate the pasta and sprinkle as many beans as you can stand over the top, along with some Parmesan cheese.
Chard cakes
I basically took these almost directly from Ottolenghi's Plenty, which is a pretty fantastic cookbook for us vegetarian types. I give you my highly abridged notes on this recipe, plus my tweaks.
***
1 ¼ lbs chard
1/3 c pine nuts [We did not have any pine nuts, so I used finely chopped walnuts]
1 tbsp olive oil
4 oz kashkaval cheese, coarsely grated [I don't even remember what this is. I used a roughly equal amount of crumbled goat feta in one batch, and 3 tbsp of garlic and pepper farmers' cheese from my fabulous local dairy in the other]
1 egg
6 tbsp dried white breadcrumbs
¼ tsp salt
[2 tbsp cooked quinoa]
Cut stalks from chard. Bring large pan of water to boil, add stalks, and simmer for 4 minutes. Add leaves, stir, and continue simmering for 3 minutes. Drain chard and allow to cool down slightly. Squeeze as much water out as possible. Be quite forceful. Chop leaves and stalks and put into mixing bowl.
In small frying pan, fry pine nuts [walnuts] in tbsp of oil until light brown (about 1 minute). Add nuts and oil to chard, followed by cheese, egg, breadcrumbs, s&p [and quinoa]. If mix is too soft and sticky, add more crumbs.
Heat oil in frying pan. Shape chard mix into eight patties 2 inches in diameter and 5/8 inch thick. Fry for 3 minutes on each side, or until golden brown. Transfer to paper towels to absorb oil.
***
The original recipe suggests that you serve this with a sorrel sauce, but sorrel isn't exactly in season anymore, so I made a quick tzatziki sauce with 1/2 c. plain yogurt, the juice of half a lemon, a dash or two of red wine vinegar, salt, a clove's worth of crushed garlic, and a large pinch each of dried dill and mint. Mix thoroughly, then cover and let sit in the fridge for at least 30 minutes (longer if possible). Plate up on a bed of quinoa and drizzle over the tzatziki to your liking.
The salad was mandolined pattypan squash and fennel, tossed in a lemon juice/olive oil/salt dressing with a dollop of leftover tzatziki mixed in for good measure. The chard was haphazardly pinched into little ball-like lumps and fried in a tiny bit of oil until brown all over (it managed to not dry out too much while in the fridge, but if it does, just add a bit of water until it sticks together). Quarters of little ciliegine mozzarella balls are a nice touch, and I imagine that goat cheese would be splendid, too.
Excellent uses for a glut of greens, even if you didn't have to rescue them from the clutches of the family Vespidae.
Yes, wasps.
Did you know that they were big fans of vegetables? I assumed they lived off of spite and terror and the tears of the innocent (well, some do) and ruined picnics and sugar. But no! They also eat greens.
The wretched buggers were laying waste to our chard and undoubtedly scaring off the friendly bees who only wanted buzz around politely and pollinate things. Also, they made harvesting much more dangerous for The Husband, who is frightfully allergic to stings and yet never seems to have his anti-sting medications on his person. So we hosed down the garden to try to scare them away, then quickly made off with all the chard (and cavolo nero, for good measure) we could before they caught on. And while this did leave me feeling pretty pleased for having pulled one over on the striped menace, it also left us with copious amounts of greenery that demanded my attention.
(It also left us with a lot of rat tail radish that needs pickling or something.)
First up was a garlicky cavolo nero pasta with thinly sliced squashes and crispy beans. I love crispy beans. In fact, I ate a lot of them before they even made it to the pasta. Fortunately, I have come to anticipate issues like these and adjust my amounts accordingly.
For the chard, I ended up making two different batches of chard cakes, which are tasty in both large cake form (with some quinoa and tzatziki)
and in smaller crispy-bit form on top of a salad of shaved pattypan squash and fennel with mozzarella.
Of course, it feels like we've barely put a dent in our greens collection, so more green-centric food will be forthcoming. Can't let the hornets feel like they won, now can we?
[Food considerations: The cavolo nero pasta is vegetarian, vegan if you omit the cheese and use an eggless pasta, and gluten-free if you use gluten-free pasta. The chard cakes are vegetarian, and can be made gluten-free by using gluten-free breadcrumbs, though rice flour would probably work just as well. My version of pasta contains eggs, as do the chard cakes; the chard cakes also include dairy. Both should be soy-free.]
SO YOU WANT IN ON THIS, HUH?
Garlicky cavolo nero with crispy beans and squash
If you'll be making your own pasta, go ahead and get the dough started. My recipe is here (my God, the sister blog is ignored). Cover and let it rest while you make everything else (it should sit for at least 30 minutes, but can easily sit longer—just make sure it's covered, or else it'll dry out).
To make crispy beans: Cook a meaty bean of your choice (I used borlotti and followed my normal method of pressure cooker + dried chipotle). Try to get a good bean type for this, as the beans must be able to stand on their own to work well (as my frequent snacking whilst cooking can attest). Aside from borlotti, any cranberry-esque bean will work, as will any bean that holds its shape.
Finely slice two or three cloves of garlic. In a shallow saute pan, heat up some oil (I used a mix of grapeseed and roasted garlic olive oil). When hot, add the garlic, mix briefly, and then add the beans. Stir until everything is well coated, season with a large pinch of salt, then let cook on a medium-high heat, mixing occasionally, so that the beans fry and their skins begin to crack. Once the beans get crispy and chewy, remove from the heat (keep the little burnt garlic chips, too, as they are amazing).
Wipe most of the oil from the pan, then return to the stove.
For the greens, remove the woody stems as needed (ours was still but a young'un, so I left most of it alone). Wash the leaves, though you don't need to be too fussy about drying them. Thinly slice about a dozen cloves of garlic; seriously, it can take it, so just BE BRAVE. TRUST THE GARLIC.
Add some olive oil to the pan and, just like the crispy beans, add the garlic once the oil is hot. Let the garlic saute for about a minute, then add the cavolo nero. Stir well, until all the leaves are glossy from the oil, then cover and let cook until just tender (you still want a bit of bite to the stems). Salt to taste, give a final stir, then remove to a bowl.
If you're rocking the homemade pasta, roll out and cut your noodles to your preferred shape. If using pre-made pasta, start cooking it now. You will want the pasta to be ready right when the zucchini (see next step) is done, so don't start cooking the squash until just before the pasta is al dente.
Using a mandoline (or excellent knife skills, if you have them), thinly slice a small zucchini lengthwise, then julienne the squash into strips about the width of fettucine. Heat up a tiny bit of olive oil in your saute pan and add a pinch of Aleppo pepper. Let the pepper flavor the oil, then throw in the strips of zucchini. Cook them very briefly, just enough to warm through, then add the cooked cavolo nero, stir about, and then add the drained pasta. Stir madly, mixing everything together as much as possible (this may not be easy), then move the pan off the heat. Squeeze half a lemon (or more, depending on your taste) over everything, along with a few turns of the pepper grinder. Plate the pasta and sprinkle as many beans as you can stand over the top, along with some Parmesan cheese.
Chard cakes
I basically took these almost directly from Ottolenghi's Plenty, which is a pretty fantastic cookbook for us vegetarian types. I give you my highly abridged notes on this recipe, plus my tweaks.
***
1 ¼ lbs chard
1/3 c pine nuts [We did not have any pine nuts, so I used finely chopped walnuts]
1 tbsp olive oil
4 oz kashkaval cheese, coarsely grated [I don't even remember what this is. I used a roughly equal amount of crumbled goat feta in one batch, and 3 tbsp of garlic and pepper farmers' cheese from my fabulous local dairy in the other]
1 egg
6 tbsp dried white breadcrumbs
¼ tsp salt
[2 tbsp cooked quinoa]
Cut stalks from chard. Bring large pan of water to boil, add stalks, and simmer for 4 minutes. Add leaves, stir, and continue simmering for 3 minutes. Drain chard and allow to cool down slightly. Squeeze as much water out as possible. Be quite forceful. Chop leaves and stalks and put into mixing bowl.
In small frying pan, fry pine nuts [walnuts] in tbsp of oil until light brown (about 1 minute). Add nuts and oil to chard, followed by cheese, egg, breadcrumbs, s&p [and quinoa]. If mix is too soft and sticky, add more crumbs.
Heat oil in frying pan. Shape chard mix into eight patties 2 inches in diameter and 5/8 inch thick. Fry for 3 minutes on each side, or until golden brown. Transfer to paper towels to absorb oil.
***
The original recipe suggests that you serve this with a sorrel sauce, but sorrel isn't exactly in season anymore, so I made a quick tzatziki sauce with 1/2 c. plain yogurt, the juice of half a lemon, a dash or two of red wine vinegar, salt, a clove's worth of crushed garlic, and a large pinch each of dried dill and mint. Mix thoroughly, then cover and let sit in the fridge for at least 30 minutes (longer if possible). Plate up on a bed of quinoa and drizzle over the tzatziki to your liking.
The salad was mandolined pattypan squash and fennel, tossed in a lemon juice/olive oil/salt dressing with a dollop of leftover tzatziki mixed in for good measure. The chard was haphazardly pinched into little ball-like lumps and fried in a tiny bit of oil until brown all over (it managed to not dry out too much while in the fridge, but if it does, just add a bit of water until it sticks together). Quarters of little ciliegine mozzarella balls are a nice touch, and I imagine that goat cheese would be splendid, too.
Excellent uses for a glut of greens, even if you didn't have to rescue them from the clutches of the family Vespidae.
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