The Purloined Recipe

from Molly Beverly

Serves 4

6 large garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
4 Tablespoons butter or olive oil
1 cup shelled walnuts
3 ounces ricotta cheese
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
½ pound Italian (imported) fettuccine
1 pound Swiss chard
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Walnut halves for garnish

In a medium skillet sauté the garlic in the butter or olive oil. It should gently sizzle until barely golden. Remove from heat. Place half of this garlic and oil in a blender or food processor. (Leave the other half of the garlic and oil in the pan for later.) Add walnuts, ricotta, milk and Parmesan cheese. Blend until smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste and set aside.

Wash the chard and remove the large central stem. Take a few leaves and roll them up together tightly. Using a sharp knife, slice this roll into thin shreds. Repeat with the remaining chard. (Now the chard is about the same shape as the fettuccine.) Reheat the skillet with the butter or oil and garlic over medium heat. Add the chard and stir until it wilts.

Lightly salt to taste.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add fettuccine and cook al dente.

Drain, add sauce from blender and toss to coat each strand. Serve each serving with a mound of pasta topped with the chard, a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese, a grind of fresh pepper and a walnut half.

Recipes By Ingredient, The Recipes, entrees, garlic, sauces, swiss chard

Serves 4 to 6

By the time the greens have cooked for 45 minutes, their sting is gone and they’re tender and silky. If you prefer slightly milder greens, use one bunch eachof mustard greens and chard, or all chard.

2 big bunches mustard greens, coarse stems removed
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 onion, diced
1/4 cup white rice
2 tablespoons finely chopped ginger
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
1 cup chopped cilantro stems and leaves
sea salt
plain yogurt, Goat’s Milk Yogurt with Cilantro and Mint, or lemon wedges

1. Wash the mustard greens well, then chop, but don’t dry them.
2. Heat the oil in a wide, heavy pot over medium heat. Add the onion, rice, ginger, cumin, and paprika. Stir to coat with the oil. Cook for 2 minutes, then add the cilantro and the mustard (and/or chard greens.
3. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon salt, cover the pan, and cool until the volume has reduced, 10 to 15 minutes. Give everything a stir, then reduce heat to low, re-cover, and cook slowly for 40 minutes. There should be ample moisture in the pot, but check once or twice to make sure that nothing is sticking on the bottom. If the pan seems dry, add a few tablespoons of water.
4. Cook until the greens are really tender, 10 to 15 minutes more.

Serve warm or at room temperature, with yogurt spooned over the top or a squeeze of fresh lemon.

Recipes By Ingredient, The Recipes, cilantro, onions, other greens, side dishes, swiss chard

(recipe from the book Local Flavors used with permission of the author, Deborah Madison)

Serves 2 - 4.

Sorrel fares miserably when packaged in plastic clamshells—it just falls apart.

Plus sorrel is something you want to use by the bunch, not just by the leaf, and
the farmers’ market is one place you can often find this tart, lemony herb in
abundance.

Lovage is harder to find, even at the farmers’ market, but ask an herb seller if she has some or would consider growing it. It’s an easy herb to grow, and its bracing, dynamic flavor adds a tot of personality to all kinds of dishes. Together these herbs give this soup a mysterious flavor that’s a little hard to place but definitely exciting. (A small bunch of cilantro would do the same thing, lacking the other herbs.) Made with the lesser amount of liquid, the soup is thick and hearty. Using the full amount makes a more refined soup.

Serve with small croutons crisped in olive oil or with a few tablespoons of cooked rice in each bowl.

1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 red onion, thinly sliced
2 small potatoes, thinly sliced
1 carrot, thinly sliced
3 to 4 cups (6 to 8 ounces) sorrel, stems removed
4 cups chard leaves
1 cup lovage or cilantro leaves, finely chopped
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
4 to 6 cups vegetable stock, chicken stock, or water
lemon juice or white wine vinegar
1/3 cup crème fraîche

1. Warm the butter and oil in a soup pot. Add the onion, potatoes, carrot. sorrel, and chard, along with the water clinging to its leaves. Add two thirds of the
   lovage and sprinkle 1½ teaspoons salt over all. Cover and cook over low heat
   until the greens have collapsed and the potatoes are partially cooked, about 15
   minutes. If the pan seems too dry at any point, add water in small increments so
   that nothing burns.
2. Add the stock or water, bring to a boil, and simmer, partially covered, for 15 minutes. Puree or leave the soup with some texture. Stir in the remaining lovage. Taste for salt and season with pepper and lemon juice or vinegar to taste to bring out the flavors. Sometimes several adjustments are necessary to get it right. Stir in the crème fraîche and serve.

carrots, cilantro, lovage, onions, potatoes, sorrel, soups, swiss chard

(recipe from the book Local Flavors used with permission of the author, Deborah Madison)

Serves 4- 6.

1 cup freshly cracked walnuts
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
2 to 3 pounds chard
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra for the dish
3 large garlic cloves, minced
1/3 cup white wine
1 cup sheep’s milk or cow’s milk ricotta, preferably whole-milk
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan
2 (4 ounce) balls fresh mozzarella coarsely grated
1¼ cups milk
1 (8 ounce) box no-boil lasagna noodles

1. Bring 2 gallons of water to a boil for the chard and the pasta. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F, and then toast the walnuts in a shallow pan until pale gold and fragrant, 7 to 10 minutes. Chop finely and set aside.
2. When the water boils, add 1 tablespoon salt and the chard. Cook until tender, about 5 minutes, even if the water doesn’t return to a full boil. Scoop the chard into a colander and press out most of the water. Reserve the water. Finely chop the chard.
3. Heat the oil in a wide skillet and add 2/3 of the garlic, then the chard. Cook over medium-high heat, turning frequently, for several minutes, then add the wine and allow it to cook down. Turn off the heat.
4. Combine the ricotta, parmesan, all but ¾ cup of the mozzarella, and the
   remaining garlic in a bowl. Stir in 1/3 cup of the chard cooking water, then add
   the chard. Mix together, taste for salt, and season with pepper.
5. Bring the water back to a boil. Lightly oil an 8 * 10 or 9 * 13 inch baking dish. Drizzle ¼ cup milk over the dish. It won’t go on evenly because of the oil but this is all right.
6. Drop 3 pieces of the instant pasta into the water and boil for 1 minute. Remove them and fit them in the baking dish. Sprinkle with ¼ cup of the milk, a third of the cheese mixture, and ¼ cup of the walnuts. Repeat twice more with the pasta, milk, cheese mixture, and nuts. When you get to the last layer, add the remaining milk, mozzarella, and walnuts.
7. Place 4 toothpicks in the pasta to make a tent, then cover with foil, and bake for 25 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for 10 minutes longer or until lightly browned on top. Let sit for 10 minutes, then cut into portions and serve.

entrees, garlic, swiss chard

(recipe from the book Local Flavors used with permission of the author, Deborah Madison)

Serves 4 - 6

The Noodle Nests
2 eggs, separated
3 ounces, (1 3/4 cups) fine egg noodles such as fideos or capellini, uncooked
1/3 cup grated Monterey Jack cheese
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
sea salt
peanut oil for frying

1. Beat the egg whites until they hold firm peaks, then stir in the yolks, noodles, cheese, and cilantro. Season with a few pinches of salt, then really work the mixture with your hands or a wooden spoon so that it’s more or less
   homogenous. It will look impossibly dry and stiff.
2. Heat enough oil in a medium skillet over medium-high hear to float the
   noodles, at least 1/3 inch. When it’s hot, drop the batter into the oil, dividing it into
   4 or 6 portions by eye.
3. Fry until golden, about 1 minute, then turn and fry the second side, another minute. Set aside on paper towels. These can be made hours ahead of time.

The Soup
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 bunches scallions, including an inch or 2 of the greens, finely chopped
1 celery rib, diced
1 cup finely chopped cilantro stems and leaves, packed
Leaves from 1 bunch chard, green or rainbow (bright lights), about 6 cups, packed
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
6 cups vegetable or chicken stock, or water
Cilantro sprigs for garnish

1. Warm the oil in a soup pot. Add the scallions and celery and cook over
   medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. After a few minutes, add the cilantro and
   ½ cup water so that the vegetables stew rather then fry. Add the chard leaves,
   sprinkle with 1 teaspoon salt, then cover and cook until the chard has wilted
   down. Add the stock or water.
2. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and add the noodle nests to the pot. Simmer until the chard is tender, about 10 minutes. Taste for salt and season with
   pepper. Ladle the soup into soup plates, include a noodle nest in each bowl, and
   serve garnished with a sprig of cilantro.

cilantro, onions, soups, swiss chard

(recipe from the book Local Flavors used with permission of the author, Deborah Madison)

Serves 4 as a main dish, 6 as a side dish.

Bright Light or Rainbow chard is the variety with multicolored stems that are often
smaller and more tender than the big silver leaf or red-leafed chard. It works
beautifully here because of those narrow stems, but any variety can be used, of
course. Other greens can go in with the chard as well, such as quelites, nettles,
sorrel and spinach. Serve this gratin as a vegetarian main course or as a side
dish.

2 pounds chard, including half of the stems
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 onion, finely chopped
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
1 cup fresh bread crumbs
1 garlic clove, minced
3 tablespoons chopped dill or parsley
1 tablespoon flour
1 cup milk or cream or a mixture of cream and stock
1 cup crumbled fresh goat cheese

1. Separate the leaves and chard stems. Wash the leaves in plenty of water,
   then coarsely chop them. Trim the ragged edges off the stems, wash them well,
   then dice them into small pieces.
2. Melt half the butter in a wide skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and chard stems and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion has begun to brown a bit, about 20 minutes. Add the chard leaves, sprinkle with 1 teaspoon salt, and cook until they’re wilted and tender, another 10 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 400 F and lightly oil a 2-quart gratin dish. Melt half the remaining butter in a small skillet and add the bread crumbs, garlic, and dill. Cook, stirring for about a minute, then scrape the crumbs into a bowl and return the pan to the heat.
4. Melt the last tablespoon of butter, stir in the flour, then whisk in the milk.
   Simmer for 5 minutes, season with ½ teaspoon salt, and add to the chard
   mixture. Add the cheese, then taste the mixture, correct for salt, and season with
   pepper.
5. Pour the mixture into the prepared dish and cover with the bread crumbs.
   Bake until heated through and golden on the surface, about 25 minutes. Let
   settle a few minutes before serving.

dill, entrees, garlic, onions, parsley, side dishes, swiss chard