Swiss Chard Stars in Umbria Goodness

Baked Swiss chard goodness added a tasty side dish to a recent lunch.

Not Swiss chard from Novella’s vegetable stand in Assisi this time…

…but from our own vegetable garden, although I missed a shot of Pino picking it.

Here’s all you need to make Baked Swiss Chard:

• a geenerous bunch of Swiss chard with stems on
• a few tablespoons of butter
• flour, a couple tablespoons
• milk – about 1/2 qt
• freshly-grated Parmesan cheese, q.b. (quanto basta or “as much as you need”) – or fine to use a pecorino cheese
• gorgonzola cheese, q.b. (or other cheeses with sharp flavor)
• salt, pepper, q.b.
• nutmeg, q.b.

Start by washing well the Swiss chard (and all our vegetable-rinsing water is always saved for our flower):

Put salted water on to boil for the cooking of the Swiss chard – and then cut the stems off the chard:

When the water came to a roiling boil,….

….drop in the Swiss chard stems, lower the heat and cook the stems for just a few minutes:

Drain the stems, saving the water for the cooking of the Swiss chard leaves:

Cut the larger chard leaves in half to have more or less uniform-sized slices for cooking…..

…..and then steam them for just a few minutes in the boiling water (lowering the heat to simmer after you put in the greens):

Drain the steamed Swiss chard….

…..and set aside.

Prepare a béchamel cream for the baking of the Swiss chard. Pre-heat oven to about 350 F.

Melt a couple tablespoons of butter and stir in two or three tablespoons of flour:

Stir the flour/butter mixture continually as you gradually add milk (about 1/2 qt):

Add nutmeg, q.b….

…and a bit of salt and black pepper, q. b.:

Stir in a few tablespoons of grated Parmesan (and/or pecorino):

Set aside the béchamel sauce and prepare the Swiss chard.

Butter a baking dish and line it with the steamed Swiss chard stems:

…..and add a few of the leaves:

Spread some of the béchamel over the chard…

…..and repeat with another layer of chard, then béchamel. Crumble gorgonzola here and there on the top.

Bake for about 30 minutes.

Note: If you have left-over béchamel, you can cook some pasta al dente, then stir it into the remaining béchamel and put in a baking dish with tomato sauce on top and a sprinkle of Parmesan and some of the gorgonzola to create a tasty primo piatto or “first course.”

Pasta flanked the Swiss chard in our oven:

The baked Swiss chard is ready to serve when a golden crust has formed on top:

Buon appetito!

P.S. We enjoyed some of the steamed Swiss chard seasoned simply with our olive oil and freshly-squeezed lemon juice, too – our usual way to savor our Swiss chard:

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