Hello Bug Bites! Long time, no see! I had a really busy semester this fall, and had trouble making time to shop and cook for Bug Bites. A little lesson in truly how hard it is to shop and cook locally allll the time.

Additionally, I’ve had a little trouble motivating to get back into it for some reason. I find it difficult to balance keeping up with things that I like to do without making them feel like chores. To my surprise, I had a lot of people over the holidays asking me where Bug Bites has been or wondering why they haven’t seen many new posts. That excited and inspired me to get cooking again, so enough of me blabbing! Let’s dive right back in with this hearty and delicious swiss chard pasta.

My Hollygrove box this week featured a beautiful bunch of rainbow chard and a couple nice lemons. Fresh, lemony pasta is one of my favorite things in the world. So, that, plus greens?? Heaven.

Put on a large pot of salted water to boil and start cooking a box of your favorite spaghetti or linguini. You could do angel hair if that’s your preference, but I find it can get a little clumped up and not mix well with wilted greens.

I removed the stems from the chard and did a rough chop of the leaves. Hack: pickle the chard stems by packing them into a jar and pouring over a boiling mixture of white vinegar, water, sugar, and salt. Delicious and nutritious snacking, as well as no waste!

Toss the greens in a pan lined with a little olive oil over medium heat and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Cook for about 5 minutes or until the greens are wilted.

Remove the pasta with tongs or strain and transfer to the sauté pan with the greens.

Squeeze in the lemon juice and toss the pasta to coat and incorporate the greens. Can you toss too many times? No. Can dry pasta ruin your day? Quite possibly. Don’t take the risk. If the pasta seems a little dry add a drizzle of olive oil and keep tossing.

Serve immediately and top with freshly shaved parmesan. Enjoy!

 

Lemony spaghetti with Swiss Chard

Level: Easy

Serves: 4

Ingredients 

1 bunch rainbow chard, roughly chopped

1 lb spaghetti

The juice of 1 and 1/2 lemons

2 tsp olive oil

2 oz parmesan cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

Cook spaghetti according to package instructions in SALTED boiling water. While the pasta cooks, heat the olive oil in a large pan and sauté greens for about 5 minutes or until wilted. Season with salt and pepper. Add cooked pasta and lemon juice. Toss thoroughly. Season to taste and top with parmesan cheese.