Since deciding to be a person who mostly eats grown-up food instead of apple-and-peanut-butter sandwiches for six meals in a row, I’ve been trying to find dinner entrees that are (a) easy, (b) pretty cheap, and (c) taste just as good as three-day-old leftovers as they do fresh. This pasta dish falls into all three categories, and is delightfully garlicky to boot.
I’m still not happy with the Swiss-chard-to-pasta ratio, but as a general guideline, use a lot. Really a lot. You just won’t believe how vastly hugely mindbogglingly much you should use. It seems to shrink down from being enough to feed eight people to being a garnish for two in about thirty seconds, so keep that in mind if you are a vegetable person (in the photos I had about one and a half bunches; next time I will probably use three).
Also! The original recipe uses broccoli rabe instead of Swiss chard. It seems to be delicious with either. I used egg noodles as the pasta because the bag was on sale, but any short pasta will work.
Garlic Swiss Chard Pasta
Ingredients
1 lb pasta
2-3 bunches Swiss chard (or more to taste)
1/2 cup olive oil
6 garlic cloves (or more to taste), pressed
lots of black or white pepper, to taste
1 tsp. Kosher salt
Instructions
1. Boil a really big pot of salted water. While you wait, wash the Swiss chard, remove most of the stems, and cut the rest into two-inch pieces.
2. When the water is boiling, add the pasta. When it’s five minutes from finished (according to the package cooking time), add the Swiss chard. It will look like too much to fit, but it will start to wilt as you stir. Continue to cook until the pasta is al dente, then drain and add to a large serving dish.
3. In a small pan, cook the olive oil, garlic cloves, and salt over moderate heat, stirring until the mixture turns light gold. Pour over the pasta and toss (if you can’t get it all out of the pan, pour some of the pasta into the pan and swirl it around to soak up the extra, and then toss). Sprinkle generously with black (and if you have it, white) pepper. Serve.
Adapted from Gourmet.
Maybe I have a bunch of rainbow chard in my fridge right now that I don’t know what to do with.
Thanks!
yeah, i’m pretty sure the only acceptable thing to do with rainbow chard is to make a gay recipe with it
<3
I wonder if Kale would work as well…?
I vote yes!
This looks like something that could be done with fresh spinach as well! I say this because I have spinach and the rest of these ingredients at home.
I also enjoy a little pasta with my garlic.
Hi so I made something somewhat resembling this tonight and am reporting back.
I put in some chicken because I had it (thigh meat cause again, it’s what needed to be eaten) and some slices of prosciutto because this was screaming for salty bits of delicious in it. I would have used capers if I didn’t use the prosciutto. Mmm. Capers. So I cooked those together with the garlic and then I added about 1/2 cup white wine and cooked it down. I used Tinkyada brown rice elbow pasta and it was great garnished with a lot of fresh black pepper and a little parmesan.
Suggestion–don’t boil the chard. I just did and then I saw all of the delightful nutrition probably go into the pasta water. Maybe wilt it in with your garlic, or dump it back in the hot drained pasta and stir it around to wilt. This would work better if you cut it up really small.
and oh god now I ate three helpings of it
don’t do that
I am deeply in love with the plate that pasta’s on! (Sorry, easily distracted by ceramics.)
This looks like it would go really well with bok choy as well. Thanks for the great recipe!
I just made this with fresh spinach and arugula, it was fantastic! I’ll use a little less oil and more greens next time, and wilt the greens with the garlic like Marika said.
Thanks for the recipe!