Here's the menu:
Bitter Greens with Cherries and Pancetta
Swiss Chard Tart with Potato Crust
Roasted Green Beans with Lemon, Pine Nuts and Parmigiano
The Bitter Greens Salad with Cherries and Pancetta is from Fine Cooking. I used bitter greens from Burkholder Organics and cherries from Frecon Farm. Here's the recipe:
4 large handfuls of bitter greens, washed
3/4 pound cherries - pitted
2 Tbsp olive oil
3 ounces pancetta, diced
1 shallot, diced
2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper
parmigiano cheese for topping
In a saute pan, heat 1 Tbsp olive oil, add the pancetta and cook until crisp. Remove pancetta to paper towel, set aside. Add the shallot to the pan and saute until soft. Remove the pan from the heat and add the additional Tbsp olive oil and the vinegar. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Place the greens in a serving bowl and add the cherries - I halved the cherries after pitting. Add the cooked pancetta. Season with salt and pepper. Add the warm balsamic shallot dressing - toss lightly. Top with shaved parmesan.
This recipe for the Swiss Chard Tart is so easy - a potato crust - just doesn't get any easier courtesy of The Simple Gourmand blog! My family loved it! The Swiss Chard was from Blueberry Hill, the potatoes from Livengood, the eggs from Lindenhof, and I even snuck in some goat cheese from Shellbark Hollow.
Ingredients:
3/4 lb. Swiss chard
1 lg clove garlic, very thinly sliced
Salt & freshly ground pepper to taste
2 lg high-starch potatoes, unpeeled & scrubbed clean
1 1/2 tsp chopped fresh thyme
1/2 heaping C freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 lg eggs
1 C ricotta cheese
1/2 cup chèvre
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Trim the stems from the chard, wash the leaves thoroughly, drain and dry. Coarsely chop the chard. In a large skillet, heat 1 tbsp of the oil over medium heat. Add half the chard and half the garlic and cook, stirring frequently. As the chard cooks down, add the remaining chard and garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring until chard is just tender. Tilt the skillet to the side and blot up any excess liquid with paper towel. Let cool.
To make the crust, slice the potatoes very thinly. It's fine if some of the slices are smaller than others - the important thing is to make them fairly uniform in thickness. Create a thin layer of the potato slices on the bottom of the pie plate (preferably glass), slightly overlapping them to create a solid bottom "crust." Gently tuck potato slices along the edges to create a border up the sides of the pie plate. Drizzle 2 Tbsp of the oil over the crust, swirling the pan slightly so the oil spreads between the potato layers and drips to the bottom. Sprinkle crust with 1/2 tsp of thyme, some salt, and pepper, and a heaping 1/4 C of Parmesan cheese.
Whisk the eggs in a large bowl and whisk in the ricotta, the remaining teaspoon thyme, and the remaining 1/4 C Parmesan cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Add the cooled sauteed chard and mix well. Pour the filling into the pie crust and press down lightly.
Bake the tart for 20 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and bake for another 10 minutes. The potato crust should turn brown and crisp, and the filling should feel solid and firm when gently touched with your fingers. Let cool about 5 minutes before cutting into wedges.
And finally - the Roasted Green Beans - I will be repeating this side dish often - it was simply amazing! Here's the link to the recipe on Fine Cooking's website. The green beans were from Peg at Blueberry Hill - they were a healthy size - perfect for roasting! Who needs French fries when you can have something this good!
No comments:
Post a Comment